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ADDRESSES 


AT  THE 


CELEBRATION 


yUV-^- 


OF 


THE   COMPLETION  OF  THE 


Twenty- FIFTH  Academic  Year 


VASSAR  COLLEGE, 


ft 


June,  >  1 890. 


.1 


yL  "l^-^^  ^ 


It  seemed  fitting  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  of 
Vassar  College  to  celebrate  its  twenty-fifth  year 
of  academic  life^  not  merely  as  a  recognition  of 
its  own  work  and  history^  but  as  recalling  an 
event  marking  an  epoch  in  the  education  of 
woman.  A  plan  was  arranged  designed  to 
embody  both  these  aims.  In  addition  to  the 
usual  exercises  of  Commencem^ent  weeky  a  day 
was  set  apart  for  the  anniversary  exerciseSy  the 
programme  of  which  follows  on  another  page. 
It  provided  beside  for  an  address  on  Commence- 
ment Day  by  the  President  of  the  College,  for  a 
reception  to  the  guests  by  the  Trustees  and 
Faculty y  for  a  reunion  of  Alumnce  and  former 
students  y  and  for  a  dinner  to  the  Alumnce.  The 
festivities  continued  from  Monday  till  Thursday 
night.  There  were  present  delegates  from  many 
universities  and  collegeSy  large  numbers  of  former 
studentSy  and  hundreds  of  other  guests. 

The  week  will  be  long  remembered  by  all  who 
were  present y  and  the  Trustees  issue  the  addresses 
herewith  printed  as  a  memorial  of  it. 


Exercises  in  the  tent,  Thursday,  June  12,  1890. 

PROGRAMME. 
Overture — Magic  Flute,     ....         Mozart, 

PRAYER. 
Address  of  Welcome,     ....   The  President. 
Historical  Address,    .         .     Benson  J.  Lossing,  LL.  D. 
Solo  and  Chorus — From  Hymn  of  Praise,  Mendelssohn, 
Address,  .... 

Chancellor  George  William  Curtis,  LL.D.,  L.H.D.   ^«  ^^ 
Cantata  (composed  for  the  occasion,) 

**  I  will  praise  Thee,  O  Lord,  with  my  whole  heart." — Psalm  IX. 

.   Frederic  Louis  Ritter,  Mus.  Doc, 

BENEDICTION. 

March — From  Athalie,        .        .        .       Mendelssohn, 

The  music  was  furnished  by  the  orchestra  of  the  German  Opera 
Company,  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  New  York.  The  sing- 
ing was  by  a  chorus  of  eighty  students,  under  Dr.  Ritter's  direc- 
tion. 


SR3IT7] 

ADDRESf^SF^WELCOME. 

Mr.  President,   Representatives  of  Universities 

and   Colleges y    AlumncB    of    Vassar    College, 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 

It  is  my  proud  privilege  to  welcome  you  to- 
day in  the  name  of  Vassar  College,  to  participate 
in  the  exercises  which  mark  the  completion  of 
twenty-five  years  of  academic  life.  That,  in 
itself,  would  have  been  small  reason  for  asking 
you  to  leave  your  homes  and  work  to  come  and 
rejoice  with  us.  Twenty-five  years  in  the  life  of 
an  institution  is  but  infancy ;  but  this  twenty-five 
years  in  the  great  movement  of  woman's  educa- 
tion marks  an  era  in  all  educational  history. 
That  which  many  of  our  mothers  and  fathers  had 
longed  to  see,  and  never  saw ;  that  which  good 
men  and  women  had  tried  to  realize  in  the  face 
of  unbelief  and  an  unprepared  world,  was  at  last 
made  possible  by  a  woman's  word  and  Matthew 
Vassar's  splendid  gift. 

A  great  movement  never  springs  full-armed 
from  the  brain  of  time.     Sporadic  efforts  gather 


8 

at  last  into  a  great  endeavor;  streams  of  ten- 
dency unite  in  an  irresistible  flood :  then  we 
have  an  epoch.  We  gather  to-day  to  cele- 
brate that  epoch,  the  beginnings  of  the  higher 
education  of  woman  as  a  distinct  force  in  the 
world,  as  a  movement  designed  to  influence 
educational  theory  and  practice  in  all  time  to 
come.  Not  to  a  college  celebration,  save  as  the 
inception  of  that  college  marks  the  epoch,  but  to 
the  commemoration  of  twenty-five  years  of  a  his- 
tory full  of  significance  and  hope  for  the  world — 
your  history  as  well  as  ours — ^we  have  called  you 
together. 

We  rejoice  together  in  the  triumph  of  our 
cause  ;  we  gain  fresh  courage  for  the  morrow  as 
we  remember  what  has  been  done  in  a  single 
generation. 

Welcome,  then,  from  east  and  west,  from 
south  and  north,  welcome  to  this  hour  which 
is  also  yours.  Welcome  to  this  registering  of 
a  great  victory  over  prejudice  and  traditional 
wrong.  Welcome  to  the  commemoration  of 
this  great  progress  in  which  we  are  all  sharers, 


9 

and  whose  fruitage  is  of  eternal  import.  In 
the  name  of  the  College  I  bid  you  welcome, 
— aye,  in  his  name  who  would  rejoice  in  this 
great  day  could  he  have  foreseen  the  growth 
of  a  cause  to  which  he  gave  his  treasure  and 
himself. 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS. 

BENSON    J.    LOSSING,    LL.D. 

Mr,  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 

My  pleasing  duty  is  to  present  to  you  a  brief 
sketch  of  the  Genesis  of  Vassar  College,  and  so 
lead  you  to  an  intellectual  banquet  from  which  I 
will  not  long  detain  you. 

At  near  the  close  of  the  last  century,  two 
brothers,  James  and  Thomas  Vassar,  from  the 
rich  agricultural  County  of  Norfolk,  in  far  eastern 
England,  arrived  at  New  York.  They  were 
Dissenters  of  the  Baptist  order.  James  had  a 
wife  and  four  children,  of  whom  Matthew,  who 
became  the  Founder  of  Vassar  College,  was  the 
youngest.     Thomas  was  a  bachelor. 

In  the  Spring  of  1797,  this  Vassar  family 
bought  and  settled  on  a  small  farm  near  the 
(present)  hamlet  of  Manchester,  about  a  mile 
from  these  grounds.  The  stones  of  the  found- 
ation of  their  dwelling  may  still  be  seen  a  short 
distance  below  Manchester  Bridge.  The  farm 
was  a  part  of  the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Wap- 
pingi's  Creek,  which    flowed  along  one  side  of 


II 

their  possessions.  As  the  summer  advanced  they 
were  gratified  by  the  apparition  of  many  saplings 
on  the  borders  of  the  stream,  draped  with  the 
spiral  .vines  of  the  wild  hop,  from  the  clustering 
blossoms  of  which  they  might  distill  the  lupuline 
for  making  home-brewed  ale,  the  delight  of  every 
English  household.  But  barley  for  malt  was 
wanting;  so,  in  the  fall,  Thomas  returned  to 
England  for  that  and  other  cereals,  and  in  1 798 
the  first  crop  of  barley  ever  garnered  from  the 
soil  of  Duchess  County  was  raised  on  the  little 
Vassar  farm. 

When  apples  were  ripening  in  September, 
there  was  well-brewed  ale  in  the  Vassar  home. 
The  thrifty  family  made  it  for  sale  to  their 
thirsty  neighbors  ;  and  it  was  not  long  before 
little  Matthew,  eight  or  ten  years  old,  might  have 
been  seen,  with  his  mother,  on  the  road  to 
Poughkeepsie  in  a  farm  wagon,  with  a  barrel  of 
ale,  the  freshest  eggs  and  the  yellowest  butter, 
for  which  there  was  an  ever  ready  market. 

Little  Matthew  and  his  elder  sister  sometimes 
wandered   over  the   half-wooded   hills,    towards 


12 

Poughkeepsie.  On  one  occasion,  when  out  nut- 
ting, they  stood  on  a  gentle  eminence,  now 
known  as  "Sunset  Hill"  within  the  College  do- 
main, and  admired  the  scenery  westward.  "  How 
I  wish  I  owned  these  pretty  woods  and  fields !  " 
exclaimed  the  thoughtful  boy,  as  he  looked  down 
upon  the  plain  before  him.  Fifty  years  after- 
wards he  did  own  two  hundred  acres  of  those 
"pretty  woods  and  fields,"  including  "Sunset 
Hill." 

At  the  beginning  of  this  century,  the  Vassar 
brothers  sold  their  little  farm,  and  James  began 
the  business  of  a  brewer  in  Poughkeepsie.  He 
designed  to  have  Matthew  as  his  assistant,  when 
he  should  become  old  enough.  When  that  time ' 
arrived,  disliking  the  business,  Matthew  stole  off 
secretly  to  seek  his  fortune  in  the  "wide,  wide 
world."  He  did  not  travel  far.  He  walked  to 
New  Hamburgh,  eight  miles,  crossed  the  Hud- 
son River,  and  became  first  a  drudge  and  then 
a  clerk  in  a  country  store  near  Newburgh,  where 
he  remained  four  years.  Misfortunes  impover- 
ished his  family,  when  the  truant  returned  to 


13 

help  them,  with  $1.50  in  his  pocket,  which  he 
had   saved   from  his  earnings   in   ''foreign   ser- 


vice." 


Young  Vassar  brewed  ale  and  distributed  it 
among  the  villagers  with  his  own  hands ;  and  at 
the  age  of  twenty  he  opened  a  shop  in  the  base- 
ment of  the  Court  House,  for  the  sale  of  oysters 
and  ale.  He  brewed  and  distributed  his  bever- 
age by  day,  and  at  night  attended  to  his  cus- 
tomers at  the  "  oyster  saloon."  He  married  at 
twenty-one  and  began  housekeeping  in  apart- 
ments under  the  heavy  rent  of  $40  a  year,  which 
his  father  thought  was  very  extravagant.  The 
little  deal  table  on  which  the  first  repast  of  the 
young  couple  was  spread  is  preserved  in  "The 
Founder's  Room  "  in  the  College. 

By  the  practice  of  industry  and  thrift  for  thirty 
years,  Mr.  Vassar  accumulated  a  large  fortune, 
when  he  gratified  a  long-cherished  desire  by  go- 
ing to  England  and  to  the  Continent  with  his 
wife.  They  were  accompanied  by  Cyrus  Swan 
(one  of  the  survivors  of  the  first  appointed 
Trustees   of  Vassar   College),    then    a    young 


^4 

lawyer,  as  a  traveling  companion.  Being  child- 
less, and  approaching  three  score  years  of  his  life, 
Mr.  Vassar  had  thought  much  about  the  disposi- 
tions of  his  estate  at  his  death.  In  London  he 
became  much  interested  in  the  hospital  founded 
by  Thomas  Guy,  and  he  resolved  to  found  a 
similar  institution  at  Poughkeepsie. 

Years  of  active  business  passed  away.  Mr. 
Vassar  occasionally  alluded  to  the  hospital 
matter  in  conversation  with  friends.  One  day 
he  mentioned  it  to  his  niece,  Miss  Lydia  Booth, 
an  accomplished  teacher  and  manager  of  a  young 
ladies'  seminary,  at  Poughkeepsie. 

"  Uncle  Matthew,"  said  Miss  Booth,  "  I  think 
I  can  propose  something  better  than  that.  Found 
an  institution  for  the  higher  education  of  young 
women — a  real  college." 

The  thought  took  root  in  Mr.  Vassar's  mind. 
His  niece  died  suddenly.  Her  *'  Cottage  Hill 
Seminary "  was  succeeded  by  another,  at  the 
head  of  which  was  Professor  M.  P.  Jewett,  a 
Baptist  clergyman.  He  became  a  friend  and  con- 
fidential   adviser  of    Mr.    Vassar.     When    the 


15 

hospital  scheme  was  laid  before  him,  he  said,  in 
substance  : 

"A  large  hospital  here  would  be  out  of  place. 
If  you  desire  to  become  a  notable  benefactor  of 
your  race,  and  make  your  name  imperishable, 
follow  the  suggestions  of  your  niece — found  an 
institution  that  shall  be  to  young  women  what 
Yale  and  Harvard  are  to  young  men." 

Mr.  Vassar  did  not  ponder  long.  His  sagacity 
perceived  that  a  rare  opportunity  offered  for  lead- 
ing in  a  cause  of  profound  interest  to  his  country 
and  to  mankind.  He  brought  the  subject  to  the 
test  of  practical  business  calculation.  He  ap- 
proved the  project  and  engaged  Professor  Jewett 
to  assist  him  in  perfecting  plans  for  founding  a 
College  for  Women  on  a  magnificent  scale  and 
the  most  liberal  basis,  in  which  neither  sect  nor 
creed,  as  such,  should  have  controlling  influence. 
Strongly  attached  to  the  Baptists  by  life-long 
association,  he  consulted  more  educators  and 
educated  men  of  that  denomination  than  any 
other;  but  when  it  was  proposed  to  place  the 
college  under  the  general  control  of  the  Baptists, 


i6 

his  more  Catholic  spirit  instantly  and  emphat- 
ically dissented.  In  his  address  at  the  first  meet- 
ing of  the  Board  of  Trustees  he  said : 

"All  sectarian  influence  should  be  carefully 
avoided ;  but  the  training  of  the  young  should 
never  be  intrusted  to  the  skeptical,  the  irreligious 
or  the  immoral." 

Such  has  ever  been  the  sentiment,  the  policy 
and  the  practice  of  the  managers  of  the  insti- 
tution. 

With  the  legal  and  other  assistance  of  Mr. 
Swan  (who  had  been  his  trusted  counselor  dur- 
ing all  the  years  of  discussion)  and  Professor 
Jewett,  Mr.  Vassar  proceeded  cautiously  in  the 
great  work  of  founding  the  institution  that  bears 
his  name.     It  was  a  new  thing  under  the  sun. 

In  January,  1861,  a  charter  was  obtained  from 
the  Legislature  of  New  York ;  and  on  the  26th 
of  February,  twenty-nine  gentlemen  named  in 
the  charter  as  corporators,  met  at  the  Gregory 
(now  Morgan)  House,  in  Poughkeepsie,  and 
were  organized  as  a  Board  of  Trustees  of  the 
inchoate  institution.     Their  names  were  : 


17 

Matthew  Vassar,  Ira  Harris,  William  Kelley, 
James  Harper,  Martin  B.  Anderson,  John 
Thompson,  Edward  Lathrop,  Charles  W.  Swift, 
Elias  L.  Magoon,  S.  M.  Buckingham,  Milo  P. 
Jewett,  Nathan  Bishop,  Matthew  Vassar,  Jr., 
Benson  J.  Lossing,  E.  G.  Robinson,  Samuel  F. 
B.  Morse,  S.  G.  Constant,  John  Guy  Vassar, 
William  Hague,  Rufus  Babcock,  Cornelius  Du 
Bois,  John  H.  Raymond,  Morgan  L.  Smith, 
Cyrus  Swan,  George  W.  Sterling,  George  T. 
Pierce,  Smith  Sheldon,  Joseph  C.  Doughty  and 
Augustus  L.  Allen.  They  represented  nearly 
every  denomination  of  Christians. 

The  Board  of  Trustees  was  organized  with 
William  Kelley,  Chairman;  Matthew  Vassar, 
Jr.,  Treasurer ;  Cyrus  Swan,  Secretary,  and 
several  standing  committees.  Only  six  of  the 
first  appointed  Trustees  are  now  on  the  earth ; 
and  only  five  of  them  are  members  of  the  Board, 

At  the  completion  of  the  organization,  Mr. 
Vassar  addressed  the  Board  and  in  conclusion, 
said  :  "  Gentlemen,  I  transfer  to  your  possession 
and   ownership,  the  real  and  personal   property 


18 

which  I  have  set  apart  for  the  accomplishment 
of  my  design."  Near  him,  on  a  table,  was  a 
small  tin  box  containing  securities,  and  a  deed  of 
conveyance  of  two  hundred  acres  of  land  for  a 
college  site  and  farm.  He  placed  one  hand  on 
the  precious  casket,  and  with  its  key  in  the  open 
palm  of  the  other  hand,  he  formally  transferred 
to  the  custody  of  the  Trustees,  $408,000  of  his 
wealth. 

The  great  Civil  War  had  just  begun ;  but  the 
Founder  and  the  Trustees  did  not  halt.  On  the 
4th  of  June,  1 86 1,  Mr.  Vassar,  in  the  presence 
of  half  a  dozen  persons,  cast  out  the  first  spade- 
ful of  earth  at  a  point  where  the  trench  to  re- 
ceive the  foundation  stones  of  the  great  structure, 
five  hundred  feet  in  length  and  five  stories  in 
height,  was  to  begin.  The  work  went  on  under 
the  direction  of  James  Renwick,  the  architect, 
during  the  four  years  of  war — ^years  of  confusion, 
uncertainty  and  great  fluctuations  in  values — 
and  yet,  so  admirably  were  the  funds  of  the  in- 
stitution managed  by  Treasurer  Matthew  Vassar, 
Jr.,  that,  at  the  meeting  of  the  Trustees  in  June, 


19 

1865,  the  property  including  the  real  estate  and 
securities,  had  been  increased  in  value  to  the 
amount  of  $700. 

The  College  edifice  was  now  about  completed. 
A  President,  Faculty  and  Instructors  for  the 
College  were  chosen.  John  H.  Raymond,  one 
of  the  Trustees,  was  elected  President,  and 
Hannah  W.  Lyman  was  appointed  Lady  Prin- 
cipal, or  executive  aid  of  the  President.  Also 
eight  Professors  and  twenty  instructors  and 
teachers  were  appointed.  The  several  depart- 
ments of  instruction  were  fairly  furnished  with 
excellent  apparatus,  and  there  was  a  nucleus  of 
a  library.  Thus  equipped,  the  College  work 
began  on  September  20,  1865,  with  nearly  350 
accepted  students  in  attendance. 

This  auspicious  beginning  of  the  grand  career 
of  the  first  real  College  devoted  to  the  higher 
education  of  women,  gave  intense  satisfaction  to 
the  Founder.  His  earnest  desire  to  have  this 
result  reached  during  his  life-time  was  abund- 
antly gratified.  He  lived  nearly  three  years 
longer  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  rewards  of  grate- 


20 


ful  benedictions  which  were  everywhere  bestowed. 
To  his  first  munificent  gift  of  over  $400,000,  he 
added  fully  an  equal  amount  by  gifts  while  he 
lived,  and  by  testamentary  provisions.  He  pur- 
chased and  presented  to  the  College  for  the  use 
of  the  Art  Department,  a  large  collection  of 
valuable  paintings  and  an  art  library  at  a  cost  of 
$20,000. 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Trustees  in  June, 
1868,  while  the  Founder  was  sitting  in  a  chair 
and  reading  his  usual  Address  on  such  occasions, 
the  manuscript  was  seen  to  fall  from  his  hands. 
He  was  caught  in  the  arms  of  one  of  the  Trus- 
tees who  was  sitting  near  him.  The  vital  spark 
was  quenched.  His  great  heart  had  ceased  to 
beat.  It  seemed  a  fitting  place  for  the  Angel  of 
Death  to  receive  his  spirit,  for  he  was  surrounded 
by  his  chosen  friends  and  loving  helpers  in  his 
great  work.  He  was  in  the  midst  of  fully  300 
of  his  foster  daughters,  and  was  within  the  pre- 
cincts of  the  magnificent  monument  which  per- 
petuates his  name  and  the  memory  of  his  deeds. 

At  the  time  of  Mr.  Vassar's  departure  he  was 


21 

seventy-six  years  of  age.  In  person,  his  stature 
was  a  little  less  than  medium  height.  He  was 
well  proportioned  and  compactly  built.  His 
complexion  was  fair,  with  lingerings  of  the 
ruddiness  of  good  health  on  his  cheeks.  The 
brown  hair  of  his  earlier  years  was  plentifully 
mingled  with  the  hoary  tokens  of  age.  His 
dark  gray  eyes  beamed  with  the  lustre  of  vigor- 
ous middle  life  and  the  radiance  of  unextinguish- 
able  good  humor.  His  nose  was  of  the  Roman 
type  and  firmly  set,  and  the  general  expression 
of  his  face  was  exceedingly  pleasant  to  both 
friends  and  strangers,  for  in  his  countenance, 
whether  in  action  or  repose,  was  ever  seen  the 
perpetual  sunshine  of  a  gentle,  cheerful  nature. 
It  might  have  been  said  of  Matthew  Vassar  as 
of  Rowe's  ideal  : 

**  Age  sits  with  decent  grace  upon  his  visage, 
And  worthily  becomes  his  silvered  locks ; 
He  wears  the  marks  of  many  years  well-spent, 
Of  Virtue,  of  Truth  well-tried  and  wise  experience." 


ADDRESS. 

GEORGE    WILLIAM    CURTIS,  LL.D.,  L.H.D. 

~  ^  On  a  summer  day  like  this,  nearly  fifty  years 
0^^  ^  ago,  the  anniversary  of  West  Indian  emancipa- 
tion, Mr.  Emerson  described  that  event  as  "a 
day  of  reason,  of  the  clear  light,  of  that  which 
makes  us  better  than  a  flock  of  birds  or  beasts." 
It  is  another  day  like  that,  a  day  of  another 
emancipation,  of  a  distinct  step  of  higher  civili- 
zation, that  we  are  assembled  to  commemorate. 
For  events  of  historical  importance  the  imagin- 
ation craves  a  fitting  scene  and  here  the  imagin- 
ation is  satisfied.  We  stand  upon  the  banks 
of  the  Hudson  and  the  Hudson  is  our  most 
historic  river.  Its  charm  is  blended  of  natural 
beauty,  of  patriotic  story,  of  literature  and 
legend.  ^  It  was  the  channel  by  which  Hendrick 
Hudson  sought  a  shorter  route  to  Cathay.  It 
was  the  war  path  of  France  and  Great  Britian 
contending  for  continental  dominion.  Its  pos- 
session was  the  tactical  object  of  the  war  of  our 


23 

independence.  Upon  its  shores  the  controversy 
culminated  in  the  decisive  surrender  of  British 
arms  and  the  open  French  alliance.  Upon  these 
shores,  also,  Washington  put  aside  the  crown, 
and  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  he  saw  retiring 
England  furl  her  flag  and  sail  away.  At  King- 
ston on  the  Hudson,  sat  the  Convention  that 
adopted  the  State  Constitution.  At  Fishkill  the 
commemorative  Cincinnati  was  organized.  Here 
in  Poughkeepsie,  beneath  the  watchful  eyes  of 
George  Clinton,  like  the  contending  Gods  in  the 
Homeric  legend,  Alexander  Hamilton  and  Me- 
lanchthon  Smith  strove  in  the  great  debate  upon 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  here. 
New  York  consented  to  the  constitution,  and 
once  more,  upon  the  Hudson,  the  career  of 
Washington  reached  its  crowning  glory  as  he 
entered  upon  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States. 
What  memorable  events  have  consecrated  this 


river    and    these    shores !     What    voices    have    ^yv/^    ^ 
thrilled  the  air   of  this  prolific   and   prosperous    S*^^^-^^ 
valley!     What  noble  figures  have  peopled  this^CX^^CX' 
majestic  scene !     But  its  story  does  not  end  with   ^^ 


24 

the  revolution.  With  the  golden  age  of  peace 
the  vast  manorial  estates  of  the  Hudson  gave  to 
the  river  a  singular  social  distinction  and  its 
shores  were  the  renowned  seat  of  magnificent 
hospitality.  Towns  and  cities  clustering  beside 
it  marked  the  advance  of  American  prosperity. 
Following  the  Half-Moon  of  Hendrick  Hudson, 
after  just  two  hundred  years,  the  Clermont  of 
Robert  Fulton  moved  sailless  against  the  stream, 
and  commerce  and  human  intercourse  were 
emancipated  from  dependence  upon  the  coy  and 
fitful  wind.  A  little  later,  with  simple  Repub- 
lican pomp  and  amid  the  happy  truce  of  parties, 
the  water  of  Lake  Erie  was  borne  down  the 
Hudson  to  the  sea,  and  a  smooth  and  unob- 
structed way  to  the  markets  of  the  world  was 
opened  to  the  mighty  North  West.  But  still 
the  beneficent  river  lacked  one  leaf  in  its  chaplet. 
Its  stately  course  through  storied  scenes,  its 
shores  teeming  with  prosperous  content,  its  land- 
scape of  undulating  and  endless  beauty  from  the 
Palisades  to  the  Catskill  and  the  softer  rural 
reaches  beyond,  yet  wanted  the  spell  which  holds 


the  traveller  s  foot  at  every  step  in  the  lesser 
landscape  of  other  lands,  the  spell  of  the  genius 
which  lifts  them  into  literature  and  so  gives  to 
every  cultivated  mind  in  the  world  an  indefeasi- 
ble estate  in  the  local  landscape. 

In  a  large  sense  the  experiment  of  American 
independence  was  associated  with  the  river. 
British  dominion  fell  and  the  republic  was  for- 
mally inaugurated  upon  its  banks.  Upon  the 
Hudson,  Fulton's  genius  and  Clinton's  enter- 
prise had  given  the  quickening  impulse  to 
American  invention  and  industry,  and,  at  last, 
American  creative  literature  was  born  under  its 
spell.  The  shore  at  Tarrytown  stretching  back- 
ward to  Sleepy  Hollow,  the  broad  water  of  the 
Tappan  Zee,  the  airy  heights  of  the  summer 
Catskill,  were  at  last  suffused  with  the  rosy  light 
of  literature  by  the  kindly  genius  of  Washington 
Irving.  I  Burns  and  Scott  have  made  their  Scot-  ^ 
land  the  Scotland  of  all  the  world.  /  Every  hill 
and  stream  and  bird  and  flower  of  the  beloved 
land  is  reflected  individually  and  fondly  in  Scot- 
tish  tale   and  song.     The  Scotchman  with  his 


26 

deep  and  strong  national  sentiment,  a  feeling 
which  survives  untouched  by  all  acts  of  political 
union  with  the  British  empire,  murmurs  wher- 
ever he  goes  the  legendary  music  of  the  Ayr  and 
the  Doon,  of  the  laverock  and  the  mavis,  the 
Scottish  landscape  and  the  Scottish  legend. 

It  is  curious  that  our  literature  should  have 
been  born  of  a  reaction  of  sentiment.  It  was  all 
sermon  until  Bryant's  Thanatopsis,  and  Bryant's 
muse  was  essentially  Puritanic.  But  as  the  boy 
Irving  used  to  esoape  from  the  severity  of  reli- 
gious discipline  by  dropping  out  of  the  window 
and  stealing  to  the  play,  so  in  his  gentle  genius 
our  nascent  literature  at  last  escaped  the  sermon 
and  came  laughing  into  life.  Not  less  striking 
is  the  fact  that  the  first  distinct  creation  of  that 
literature  should  have  been  a  characteristically 
un-American  figure.  Irving's  genius  was  what 
in  the  old  English  phrase  would  have  been 
called  sauntering.  It  cast  the  glamor  of  idlesse 
over  our  sharp,  positive  and  busy  American  life. 
Rip  Van  Winkle,  the  indolent  and  kindly  vaga- 
bond, asserts  the  charm  of  day-dream  and  loiter- 


27 

ing  against  all  the  engrossing  hurry  of  lucrative 
activity.  At  first  he,  and  the  grotesque  Knick- 
erbocker heroes,  were  solitary  figures  in  our  let- 
ters. But  so  strong  is  the  magic  of  the  Hudson 
that  Rip  Van  Winkle  on  the  western  shore  was 
soon  joined  by  Cooper  s  Spy  upon  the  eastern, 
and  presently  Leather  Stocking,  until  long  since 
Rip  is  but  one  of  a  goodly  company.  Yet  still 
he  holds  his  place.  Another  literary  spirit,  a  freer 
impulse,  greater  genius  and  figures  more  com- 
manding and  elaborate,  appear.  But  while  one 
lurid  Scarlet  Letter  spells  Puritan,  and  the  keen 
laughter  of  Hosea  Biglow  nails  fast  the  counter- 
feit American,  still  Rip  Van  Winkle  lounges 
idfy  by,  and  the  vagabond  of  the  Hudson  is  an 
unwasting  figure  of  the  imagination,  the  earliest, 
constant,  gentlest  satirist  of  American  life. 

These  are  but  glimpses  of  the  associations  of 
the  Hudson  River.  But  they  show  how  pecu- 
liarly identified  it  is  with  our  history  and  litera- 
ture, with  our  patriotism  and  national  life.  It  is 
surely  a  singular  felicity  of  fortune,  that  it  should 
be  also  as  intimately  associated  with  the  great 


28 

step  of  advancing  civilization  which  we  celebrate 
to-day,  and  that  upon  the  shores  of  the  Hudson 
should  be  founded  the  first  amply  endowed  and 
adequately  organized  college  for  women.  Like 
all  important  steps  of  social  progress,  the  rise  of 
such  an  institution  is  a  development,  not  a  sud- 
den creation.  Growth,  not  miracle,  is  the  law 
of  life.  Even  St.  John's  day,  the  longest  day  of 
the  year,  is  not  a  sudden  burst  of  splendor,  it 
brightens  gradually  from  the  faintest  flush  of 
dawn,  jfrhe  rose-bush  does  not  break  into  full- 
ness of  bloom  on  some  happy  morning  in  June, 
but  with  the  warmth  of  early  April  the  buds 
begin  to  swell  and  the  green  begins  to  deepen, 
and  gradually  like  a  Queen  leisurely  robing  for 
her  coronation,  tint  is  added  to  tint,  beauty  to 
beauty,  until  it  stands  in  the  sovereign  glory  of 
perfect  blossom.  So  our  political  constitution 
was  not,  as  is  sometimes  said,  an  inspiration,  it 
was  an  application.^  From  the  ancient  customs 
of  Swiss  cantons,  from  the  meadow  of  Runny- 
mede,  from  the  Grand  Remonstrance  and  the 
Petition  of  Right,   in  steady  Anglo-Saxon  sue- 


29 

cession  and  with  accumulating  force,  the  princi- 
ples of  our  constitution  were  derived.  No  one 
of  them  was  new  in  our  system,  but  the  applica- 
tion of  them  at  once  to  the  States  and  to  the 
Union  of  the  States,  this  was  unprecedented, 
this  was  the  rose  of  dawn  in  which  all  the  earlier 
deepening  rays  of  light  culminated  in  day. 

It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that 
we  are  celebrating  an  event  which  was  unheralded 
and  had  been  neither  attempted  nor  foreseen. 
The  greatness  of  the  occasion  and  the  fame  of 
Mr.  Vassar  ask  no  such  impossible  tribute. 
Every  important  movement,  we  are  apt  to  say, 
is  at  last  one  man.  It  is  true  that  great  events 
in  history  are  symbolized  by  certain  names,  as 
Columbus  and  the  discovery  of  America,  Sam 
Adams  and  American  Independence,  Samuel 
Romilly  and  the  reform  of  the  penal  laws.  Dr. 
Franklin  and  the  lightning  conductor,  Garrison 
and  the  abolition  of  slavery,  Henry  Bergh  and 
the  compassionate  care  of  domestic  animals. 
But  a  leader  is  strong  by  the  strength  of  others. 
He  is  sustained  by  what  is  called  the  spirit  of  the 


30 

age,  and  he  follows,  like  a  keen  Indian  guide  in 
a  company  of  white  men,  the  trail  which  fore- 
runners have  made.  Columbus  lived  in  an  age 
of  discovery.  He  heard  more  wisely  than  other 
men  the  voices  which  Charles  Summer  called 
''prophetic  voices"  concerning  America,  and  he 
knew  the  reason  why  sailing  west  would  bring 
him  to  the  East  what  he  sought.  Leaders 
merely  lead.  They  are  only  a  little  in  advance. 
They  mark  the  irritation  of  the  stem  at  the  point 
where  the  bud  will  appear.  Men  like  John 
Howard  and  Pinel  are  signs  of  a  quickening 
public  sense  of  wrong  in  penal  and  curative  sys- 
tems, which  responds  effectively  to  their  appeal. 
In  Matthew  Vassar  matured  the  vague  desire 
and  tentative  groping  toward  a  complete  oppor- 
tunity for  the  equal  higher  education  of  women, 
by  partial  efforts,  tentative  experiments,  intelli- 
^^:  gent   schemes,  for  the  same  subject   there   had 

t^  ^-        already   been,    and  already  signal  progress   had 
^i,  ^       been  achieved. 

It  is  about  a  century  since  an  active  and  con- 
stantly progressive  interest  in  the  higher,  or  more 


V 


^ 


31 

truly,    the   better,   education   of   women   began. 
During   the   eighteenth    century  the  schools  of 
Prussia,  the  country  in  Europe  which  has  most 
fostered  the  interests  of  education,  had  steadily 
declined,  and  the  schools  for  girls  were  much  less 
efficient  than  those  for  boys.     The  great  impulse 
of  the  modern  Prussian  school  system  was  given 
by  the  most  famous  of  Homeric  scholars,  Fred- 
erick Augustus  Wolf,  who  was  invited  to  Halle 
in  1 783  by  Frederick  the  Great.     Even  the  Prus- 
sian catastrophe  at  Jena  in   1806  was  not  strong 
enough   permanently  to    disturb    that    impulse, 
which  only  two  years  after  the  battle  created  a 
department  of  schools  and  placed  William  Von 
Humboldt  at  its  head.     It  was  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  same   impulse  which  has  produced 
the  modern  Prussian  school  system,  that  in  1804 
what  is  supposed  to  be   the  first  seminary  for 
women  teachers  was  founded  in  Prussia. 

But  still  the  general  European  feeling  regard- 
ing the  education  of  women  was  expressed  by 
Mrs.  Barbauld's  exhortation  to  her  sex.  Re- 
member, she  says,  to  what  Thackeray  would  have 


32 

called  the  young  British  female  of  a  century  ago, 
"your  best,  your  sweetest  empire  is  to  please." 
Mrs.  Barbauld  was  one  of  the  most  estimable  of 
women  and  altogether  superior  to  her  own  ex- 
hortation, which  was  simply  that  of  every  Cir- 
cassian slave  dealer  hurrying  his  lovely  captive  to 
the  Seraglio.  Meanwhile  in  this  country  much 
of  the  freedom  and  equality  which  were  vehe- 
mently declared  to  be  the  rights  of  human  nature 
was  yet  waiting  for  recognition,  and  continued, 
and  with  all  that  has  been  achieved,  still  con- 
tinues to  wait. 

If  a  woman  suggested  that  possibly  her  part 
of  human  nature  had  rights  also,  as  well  as 
powers,  she  was  told,  with  a  forgiving  smile,  that 
nature  had  endowed  her  with  exquisite  emotions 
and  remarkable  instincts  and  intuitions,  and  that 
heaven  designed  her  to  be  a  lovely  vine  hanging 
by  delicate  tendrils  to  the  sturdy  oak  of  man./ 
This  waiting  was  especially  true  of  the  education 
of  women.  Toward  the  close  of  the  century 
Mrs.  John  Adams,  one  of  the  most  highly  culti- 


33 

vated  women  of  her  time,  said  that  "  female 
education  in  the  best  families  went  no  further 
than  writing  and  arithmetic  and  in  some  few  and 
rare  instances  music  and  dancing."  But  the 
general  standard  even  of  the  best  education  in 
this  country  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  was 
very  low.  In  the  year  1800  although  there  were 
perhaps  twenty-five  institutions  in  the  Union, 
called  colleges,  most  of  them  were  little  more 
than  high  schools,  and  all  together  they  did  not 
graduate,  probably,  five  hundred  students  annu- 
ally. Noah  Webster  said,  *'We  maybe  said  to 
have  no  learning  at  all,  or  a  mere  smattering, 
*  *  *  as  to  libraries  we  have  no  such 
things ; "  and  George  Ticknor,  only  twenty-six 
years  ago,  said  that  good  school  books  were 
rare  in  Boston,  which  seems  to  us  to-day  much 
like  saying  that  good  diamonds  are  rare  in 
Golconda — while  a  copy  of  Euripides,  he  said, 
could  not  be  bought  at  any  book-seller's  nor  a 
German  book  found  in  the  College  at  Cam- 
bridge— a   situation   to  be  paralleled  in  the  im- 


34 

agination  only  by  Paris  without  the  opera  or 
Epsom  without  the  races.  If  the  scholastic 
diet  of  men  at  that  day  was  so  meagre  we 
can  imagine  what  that  of  women  must  have 
been. 

But  the  protest  of  feeling  had  already  begun. 
Eighty  years  ago,  reviewing,  in  the  Edinburgh, 
Mr.  Thomas  Broadhurst's  Advice  to  Young 
Ladies  on  the  improvement  of  the  mind,  a  title 
which  might  have  described  the  books  that 
were  read  by  the  good  young  ladies  in  Miss 
Austen's  novels,  Sydney  Smith  said,  that  the 
immense  disparity  which  existed  between  the 
knowledge  of  men  and  women  admitted  of  no 
rational  defence,  because,  said  the  sensible  canon, 
'*  nature  has  been  as  bountiful  of  understanding 
to  one  sex  as  the  other."  While  he  was  writing, 
Mrs.  Emma  Willard — whose  name  should  be 
always  held  in  honor  at  Vassar  and  at  every 
similar  institution  in  the  world — was  improving 
the  minds  of  young  ladies  at  a  school  in  Ver- 
mont, and  a  few  years  afterward  founded,  also 
upon   the   banks    of   the     Hudson,     the    Troy 


35 

Female  Seminary.  This  was  a  conspicuous  ad- 
vance in  the  scope  and  conception  of  such 
academies  at  that  day.  But  the  time  was  ripe 
for  Mrs.  Willard,  as  it  was  for  Columbus  and  for 
every  leader  of  civilization.  In  the  year  after 
the  opening  of  the  Troy  Academy,  Miss  Cath- 
erine Beecher,  at  Hartford,  began  her  higher 
school  for  young  women,  and  at  the  same  time 
Mary  Lyon  was  already  teaching  in  New  Hamp- 
shire. These  schools  showered  the  seed  of  the 
higher  education  of  women  all  over  the  country, 
and  Mary  Lyon  cherished  the  hope  of  a  school 
"  which  should  be  to  young  women  what  a  col- 
lege is  to  young  men,"  and  by  patient  devotion 
and  persistence  she  modestly  founded  at  last  the 
Mount  Holyoke  Seminary. 

Simultaneously  with  the  opening  of  the 
schools  of  Mrs.  Willard  and  Miss  Beecher  be- 
gan the  agitation  for  a  Girl's  High  School  in 
Boston,  as  a  part  of  the  public  school  system 
of  that  city.  With  careful  economy  of  the 
city  resources,  girls  had  been  permitted  to  at- 
tend the  public  schools  in  summer,  when  there 


36 

were  not  boys  enough  to  fill  them.  But  a  pres- 
sure for  a  more  generous  education  had  arisen 
and  such  was  the  persistent  and  unwomanly  zeal 
for  knowledge,  that  after  a  prolonged  debate  of 
three  years  a  High  School  was  established. 
The  onset  of  girls  bent  upon  higher  education 
was  overwhelming.  Like  the  astounded  Mr. 
Barnacle  in  Little  Dorrit,  the  city  fathers  were 
confronted  by  a  persistent  crowd  of  scholars  that 
wanted  to  know,  you  know. 

The  Mayor  in  dismay  announced  that  "two 
hundred  and  eighty-six  candidates  had  presented 
themselves  for  admission,  while  the  applications 
for  the  Boy's  High  School  had  never  exceeded 
ninety  and  the  greatest  number  of  boys  ever  ad- 
mitted in  one  year  was  eighty-four."  But  such 
immoderate  zeal  for  knowledge  was  never 
known,  not  only  of  geography  and  history,  of 
the  multiplication  table  and  vulgar  fractions, 
but  even  of  chemistry  and  natural  philosphy. 
What  was  to  be  done  ?  What  if  these  daring 
girls  should  demand  to  study  Latin  and  Greek  ? 


37 

What  if  they  should  insist  upon  Euclid  and  La 
Place  ?  Zoology  and  moral  philosophy  and  even 
astronomy  itself  might  follow.  The  prospect 
was  appalling.  The  awful  question  probably 
presented  itself  to  the  City  Fathers,  what  if 
Boston  women  should  come  to  know  more  than 
Boston  men  ?  Suppose  there  should  arise  a 
Board  of  Alderwomen,  what  would  become  of 
Boston  ?  As  the  good  old  deacon  used  to  say, 
**  Suppose,  fellow-sinners,  you  should  wake  up 
to-morrow  morning  and  find  yourselves  dead, 
what  would  you  say  then  ? "  The  situation  be- 
came intolerable  and  in  eighteen  months  the 
Boston  High  School  for  Girls  was  closed  be- 
cause there  was  so  great  a  multitude  of  eager 
scholars.  The  Mayor  attested  the  general 
awakening  of  public  sentiment  reversing  Mrs. 
Barbauld's  gentle  gospel,  "Your  best,  your 
sweetest  empire  is  to  please,"  by  saying  *'it  is 
just  as  impracticable  to  give  a  classical  educa- 
tion to  all  the  girls  of  the  city  whose  parents 
would  wish  them  to  be  thus  educated    at  the 


38 

expense  of  the  city  as  to  give  such  a  one  to  all 
the  boys  at  the  city's  expense.  No  funds  of 
any  city  could  endure  the  expense  of  it." 

About  sixty  years  ago,  then,  public  opinion 
had  so  far  advanced  that  Oberlin  College,  in 
Ohio,  was  chartered  in  1834,  and  apparently  the 
first  collegiate  diploma  granted  to  a  woman  in 
this  country  was  at  Oberlin  in  1838.  In  this 
college  young  men  and  young  women  were  asso- 
ciated in  study.  Oberlin  was  the  first  institution 
to  try  the  experiment  of  co-education.  Horace 
Mann,  the.  American  apostle  of  common  school 
education,  became  President  of  Antioch  College, 
also  in  Ohio,  in  1853,  and  spoke  of  co-education 
there  as  his  great  experiment.  In  the  previous 
year  Lombard  University,  in  Illinois,  was 
chartered  with  absolute  equality  of  its  privileges 
between  the  sexes. 

These  were  undoubtedly  frontier  outposts  of 
changing  public  sentiment  regarding  the  educa- 
tion of  women.  But  meanwhile,  in  1836,  the 
legislature  of  Georgia  chartered  a  college  for 
women  at  Macon,  which   for   some   mysterious 


I 


39 

reason  was  called  the  Georgia  Female  College. 
Women  are  undoubtedly  females,  but  no  more 
so  than  men  are  males.  The  word  college  does 
not  admit  the  distinction  of  sex,  and  there  is  no 
more  propriety  in  calling  Vassar  a  female  college 
than  Yale  or  Columbia  a  male  college.  Upon  a 
most  valuable  and  excellent  institution  in  the 
city  of  New  York  there  is  a  sign  which  an- 
nounces that  a  reading-room  for  males  and 
females  is  to  be  found  within.  But  whether  de-  ,  '''tC^Z-- — 
signed  for  equine  males  or  bovine  females  is  not 
stated.  Besides  the  Georgia  college  for  women 
there  was  a  Wesleyan  College,  in  Ohio,  incor- 
porated in  1846,  and  in  1848  the  Mary  Sharp 
College  at  Winchester,  in  Tennessee,  while  the 
Elmira  College,  in  New  York,  graduated  its  first 
class  in  1859. 

These  facts  and  dates  are  interesting  not  as 
incident  to  any  controversy  of  priority,  but  as 
illustrations  of  a  changing  public  sentiment. 
The  test  of  civilization  is  the  estimate  of  woman. 
The  measure  of  that  estimate  is  the  degree  of 
practical  acknowledgment  of  her  equal  liberty  of 


40 

choice  and  action  with  men,  and  nothing  is  his- 
torically plainer  than  that  the  progress  of  moral 
and  political  liberty  since  the  reformation  has  in- 
cluded a  consequent  and  constant  movement  for 
the  abolition  of  every  arbitrary  restraint  upon  the 
freedom  of  women.  It  has  been,  indeed,  very 
gradual.  Compliment  and  incredulity  have  per- 
sistently bowed  out  justice  and  reason.  But  as 
usual  the  exiles  have  steadily  returned  stronger 
and  more  resolute.  Their  first  definite  demand 
was  that  of  education.  For  this  they  have 
pleaded  against  tradition,  prejudice,  scepticism, 
ridicule  and  superstition.  There  has  been  bit- 
ter contention  not  only  over  the  end  but  the 
means.  Profuse  eloquence  and  wit  and  learning 
have  been  expended  in  the  discussion  of  the 
comparative  excellence  of  co-education  or  sep- 
arate education,  of  the  limitations  and  conditions 
which  nature  herself  has  prescribed  to  the  range 
and  degree  of  education  for  women,  of  the  divine 
intention^,  and  of  the  natural  sphere  of  the  sexes. 
In  this  ardent  but  ludicrous  debate  there  have 
been   as  many  theorizers  as  theories.     The  gen- 


41 

tlemen  of  Charles  II.'s  court  thought  that  women 

were  educated  enough  if  they  could  spell  out  the 

recipes  of  pies  and  puddings,  the  manufacture  of 

which   nature    had    entrusted    to    their    tender 

mercies.     Lord  Byron  did  not  like  to  see  women 

eat  because  he  thought  angels  should  be  superior 

to  beef  and  beer,  and  it  is   still  a  very  popular  '\hLi^ 

current  belief   that   it   is   the   sphere   of   lovely  — — 

woman 

"  To  eat  strawberries,  sugar  and  cream, 
Sit  on  a  cushion  and  sew  up  a  seam." 

This  debate  of  the  sphere  of  the  sexes  as 
determining  the  character  and  limits  of  educa- 
tion is  very  amusing.  For  if  the  sexes  have 
spheres,  there  really  seems  to  be  no  more  reason 
to  apprehend  that  women  will  desert  their  sphere 
than  men.  I  have  not  observed  any  general 
anxiety  lest  men  should  steal  away  from  their 
workshops  and  offices  that  they  may  darn  the 
family  stockings  or  cook  the  dinner,  and  I  see 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  it  will  be  necessary  to 
chain  women  to  the  cradle  to  prevent  their  insist- 
ing upon  running  locomotives  or  shipping  before 


42 

the  mast.  We  may  be  very  sure  that  we  shall 
never  know  the  sphere  of  any  responsible  human 
being  until  he  has  perfect  freedom  of  choice  and 
liberty  of  growth.  All  we  can  clearly  see  is  that 
the  intellectual  capacity  of  women  is  an  inex- 
plicable waste  of  reserved  power  if  its  utmost 
education  is  justly  to  be  deprecated  as  useless  or 
undesirable. 

Our  dogmatism  in  sheer  speculation  is  con- 
stantly satirized  by  history.  Education  was  not 
more  vehemently  alleged  to  be  absurd  for  women 
than  political  equality  to  be  dangerous  for  men. 
Happily  our  own  century  has  played  havoc  with 
both  beliefs  however  sincerely  supposed  to  be 
ordinances  of  nature.  The  century  began  with 
saying  contemptuously  that  women  do  not  need 
'to  be  educated  to  be  dutiful  wives  and  good 
mothers.  A  woman,  it  said,  can  dress  prettily 
and  dance  gracefully  even  if  she  cannot  con- 
jugate the  Greek  verbs  in  mi ;  and  the  ability  to 
calculate  an  eclipse  would  not  help  her  to  keep 
cream  from  feathering  in  hot  weather.  But 
grown   older   and  wiser  the  century  asks,  as  it 


ends,  **  Is  it  then  true  that  ignorant  womien  are 
the  best  wives  and  mothers  ?  Does  good  wife- 
hood consist  exclusively  in  skillful  baking  and 
boiling,  and  neat  darning  and  patching?  No," 
says  the  enlightened  century  ;  **  if  the  more 
languages  a  man  hath  the  more  man  is  he,  the 
more  knowledge  a  woman  hath  the  better  wife  nj^ 
and  mother  is  she."  And  if  any  sceptic  should  ^  ^  j{, 
ask,  "but  can  delicate  woman  endure  the  hard-^  ^  . 

ship   of   a   college   course   of    study  ? "    it   is   a  # 

own   sex ; — *^  I  would  like  you  to  take  thirteen   O^U,.^(ja 

hundred   young   men,    and   lace   them   up,    and 

hang   ten   to   twenty    pounds   of   clothes   upon 

their  waists,  perch    them    on   three-inch   heels, 

cover   their   heads   with   ripples,    chignons,   rats 

and    mice,    and    stick    ten    thousand    hair-pins 

into   their   scalps.     If    they   can    stand   all   this 

they   will   stand   a   little    Latin   and   Greek." 

*'  While  I  was  musing,"  says  the  Psalmist, 
"the  fire  burned."  While  the  controversy  of 
woman   blew    high    and    low,    common    sense 


woman    who    ingeniously    turns    the    flank   of 
the   questioner   with   a   covert   sarcasm    at    her 


44 

steadily  prevailed  and  public  opinion  ripened. 
There  are  always  watchmen  on  high  towers 
of  observation  who  foretell  the  approach  of 
change.  Like  the  muezzin  in  the  minaret  of 
the  mosque,  they  wake  while  others  sleep. 
But  the  spirit  of  an  age  is  shown,  not  in  the 
foresight  of  its  wiser  men  and  the  dreams 
and  hopes  of  the  few,  but  in  its  general 
disposition  and  thought.  It  is  not  the  arbutus 
and  the  early  violet  of  doubtful  April  which 
assure  us  that  summer  has  come,  but  the 
whole  blossoming  landscape  and  the  halcyon 
air  of  June.  So  it  seems  to  me  the  maturity 
of  public  sentiment  in  this  country  in  regard 
to  the  education  of  women  is  admirably 
illustrated  in  the  foundation  of  this  institution. 
Matthew  Vassar  was  not  a  student  nor  a  scholar, 
nor  were  his  familiar  associations  those  of  the 
University  and  intellectual  life.  From  his  child- 
hood he  was  immersed  in  business  and  trade. 
Sturdy,  upright,  faithful,  sagacious,  he  was  an 
admirable  representative  of  what  Lincoln  happily 
called    "the   plain   people"   who  have  given  to 


45 

this  country  its  distinctive  character.  His  life 
and  thought  undoubtedly  reflected  the  general 
tendency  of  the  time  and  the  community  in 
which  he  lived.  The  public  sentiment  of  an 
old  American  community  like  this  is  always 
intelligent  and  progressive  in  a  degree  which 
is  often  unknown  until  it  is  demonstrated 
either  by  some  emergency  like  that  of  the 
civil   war,    or   by   some   individual   act. 

There  are  great  names  in  the  history  of  New 
York,  names  illustrious  from  the  character  and 
service  of  those  who  bore  them,  names  fondly 
familiar  as  those  of  fathers  and  leaders  of  the 
state.  But  among  the  most  eminent  of  such 
citizens  whom  the  old  English  phrase  described 
as  Worthies,  eminent  for  the  significance  and 
value  of  their  services  in  a  sphere  which  has 
none  of  the  exciting  glamor  of  military  achieve- 
ment or  political  renown,  are  Ezra  Cornell  and 
Matthew  Vassar.  One  day  during  the  debate  in 
the  last  Constitutional  Convention  of  this  State 
upon  the  proposed  clause  in  regard  to  Cornell 
University,   I  was  sitting  by  Mr.  Cornell,  and 


46 

when  one  of  the  speakers  quoted  a  Latin  phrase 
Mr.  Cornell  turned  to  me  and  said,  ''  What  does 
that  mean  ?  Fortunately  for  me  the  answer  was 
not  difficult,  and  when  I  explained,  he  said 
quietly,  "  If  I  can  have  my  way,  nobody  in  this 
state  hereafter  need  be  obliged  to  ask  that  ques- 
tion." The  city  of  Ley  den,  after  its  heroic  de- 
liverance from  the  grasp  of  Spain,  commemo- 
rated its  rescue,  you  remember,  not  by  a  statue 
nor  a  monument  of  bronze  or  marble,  but  by  the 
establishment  of  a  university.  It  was  the  same 
lofty  impulse  which  moved  these  two  plain  re- 
publican citizens  of  New  York  to  devote  the 
results  of  their  sagacious  and  prosperous  industry 
not  to  their  personal  aggrandisement,  but  to  the 
permanent  benefit  of  others. 

**  I  challenge  any  lover  of  Massachusetts,"  said 
a  great  patriot  and  scholar  at  the  centenary  of 
the  battle  of  Concord  and  Lexington,  "to  read 
the  fifty-ninth  chapter  of  Bancroft's  History 
without  tears  of  joy."  It  is  the  chapter  which 
describes  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution. 
With  something  of  the  same  feeling  I  may  say 


47 

that  I  challenge  any  lover  of  New  York  or  of 
the  American  character  to  read  the  first  commu- 
nication of  Matthew  Vassar  to  the  trustees  of 
this  college  without  profound  gratitude  and  ad- 
miration. In  his  simple  words,  unconsciously  to 
himself,  speaks  the  truest  spirit  of  his  time  and 
country.  ''It  occurred  to  me  that  woman  hav- 
ing received  from  her  Creator  the  same  intel- 
lectual constitution  as  man,  has  the  same  right 
as  man  to  intellectual  culture  and  development." 
These  words  might  well  be  carved  in  gold  over 
the  entrance  of  Vassar  College.  The  fundamen- 
tal truth  which  settles  the  controversy  about  the 
education  of  women  was  never  more  completely 
and  exclusively  expressed,  and  like  all  funda- 
mental truths  when  once  adequately  stated,  it  is 
simple  and  indisputable.  Yet  in  that  contro- 
versy, if  he  heeded  it  at  all,  Mr.  Vassar  had 
taken  no  part.  The  conflict  with  tradition  and 
the  logical  consequences  which  his  views  in- 
volved, if  they  occurred  to  him,  did  not  trouble 
him.  "I  consider,"  he  said,  "that  the  mothers 
of  a  country  mould  the  character  of  its  citizens, 


48 

determine  its  institutions  and  shape  its  destiny." 
The  duty  and  the  necessity  of  the  thorough 
training  of  all  their  faculties  were  therefore  to  his 
mind,  unquestionable.  If  anybody  was  anxious 
about  the  sphere  of  woman,  Mr.  Vassar  was  not. 
Reason  and  observation  had  revealed  it.  As 
there  was  no  doubt  that  it  was  for  the  interest  of 
society  that  men  should  be  thoroughly  trained 
morally,  intellectually,  and  industrially,  there 
could  be  no  doubt  that  such  training  was  equally 
desirable  for  women,  except  upon  the  theory 
which  advancing  civilization  had  steadily  ab- 
jured. 

Mr.  Vassar's  declaration  twenty-five  years  ago 
is  the  satisfactory  evidence  that  public  senti- 
ment has  reached  the  conviction  which  his  few 
and  unqualified  words  announce.  Those  words 
quietly  set  aside  forever  the  practice  of  the 
Boston  High  School  admitting  girls  when 
boys  did  not  want  the  places.  They  signal- 
ized the  end  of  the  tradition  which  had  pro- 
duced the  immense  disparity  that  Sydney 
Smith    declared   admitted   of    no     defence,    be- 


49 

tween  the  knowledge  of  men  and  women. 
They  disposed  of  all  the  banter  about  he- 
women  and  crowing  hens,  a  banter  which 
has  always  an  uneasy  air  of  anxiety,  as  if 
those  who  invoked  it  were  a  little  doubtful 
of  their  ability  to  hold  their  own  in  an 
equal  encounter  with  trained  wits.  Mr.  Vas- 
sar's  words  assumed  that  if  Hypatia  were  not 
unsexed  by  teaching  philosophy  and  mathe- 
matics in  the  most  celebrated  school  in  the 
world,  Maria  Mitchell  would  be  only  more 
of  a  woman  than  ever,  in  teaching  other 
women  to  bind  the  sweet  influences  of  Plei- 
ades and  to  hear  the  morning  stars  sing  to- 
gether. "  For  the  last  thirty  years,"  said  Mr. 
Vassar,  ''the  standard  of  education  for  the 
sex  has  been  constantly  rising  in  the  United 
States."  The  chief  obstruction  was  want  of 
ample  endowment.  "  It  is  my  hope,"  said  he, 
''to  be  the  instrument  in  the  hand  of  Provi- 
dence of  founding  an  institution  which  shall 
accomplish  for  young  women  what  our  col- 
leges  are   accomplishing  for  young   men." 


50 

To  this  result  something  more  than  the 
name  and  form  of  a  college  is  indispensable ; 
something  more  than  ample  buildings  and 
stately  towers  and  monastic  aisles,  which  touch 
the  poet's  heart  like  ''sweet  strains  and  pen- 
sive smiles ; "  something  more  than  reverend 
quadrangles  of  cloistered  seclusion,  more  than 
romantic  suggestion,  and  the  shadowy  tradition 
of  a  thousand  years.  These  are  the  accumu- 
lating graces  and  charms  with  which  time  and 
association  gradually  invest  an  institution  of 
learning,  as  the  moss  gathers  upon  walls  i  n 
whose  shadow  Isaac  Newton  mused,  and  whose 
clustering  vines,  a  slip,  perhaps,  from  a  country 
church-yard,  Gray  trained  and  tended.  But  to 
a  great  university  two  things  are  essential,  first 
and  foremost  of  all,  the  teachers,  and  then  the 
endowment.  The  teachers,  however,  are  the 
school.  Even  Croesus  could  not  found  a 
great  university,  although  he  wrought  its  walls 
with  gold,  if  he  could  not  place  in  them  great 
and  accomplished  teachers.  But  wherever 
Erasmus    or   Colet,    in    the  time    of    the    new" 


51 

learning,  or  in  our  own  day,  Agassiz  or  Fara- 
day, or  Benjamin  Pierce,  or  Tayler  Lewis, 
might  have  taught,  there  would  have  been  a 
university. 

The  movement  of  opinion  which  lifted  Mr. 
Vassar  to  his  happy  design  had  already  pro- 
duced, as  we  have  seen,  seminaries  and  even 
colleges  for  women.  But  admirable  as  schools, 
and  significant  as  they  were  of  the  tendencies 
of  thought,  the  adequate  resource  and  com- 
prehensive scheme  which  surround  the  teacher 
with  all  the  appliances  of  teaching,  were  here 
first  fully  and  properly  supplied.  I  do  not  de- 
preciate the  smaller  colleges.  To  them  the  debt 
of  this  country  is  incalculable.  The  colonial 
colleges  were  little  more  than  high  schools, 
but  they  were  the  nurseries  of  patriots  and 
patriotism,  and  from  them  came  in  large  part 
the  leadership  of  the  Revolution  and  the  con- 
struction of  the  Constitution.  In  his  famous 
plea  for  Dartmouth  College  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  Daniel  Webster, 
its  most    famous    graduate,    spoke   of    it    with 

UNI7ER3IT71 


52 

filial  and  personal  tenderness,  and  a  suppressed 
emotion  which  was  profoundly  impressive.  In 
the  earnestness  of  his  appeal,  addressing  Chief 
Justice  Marshall  individually,  he  said,  with  a 
breaking  voice,  ''  Sir,  it  is  a  small  college — 
and  yet — there  are  those  who  love  it."  Then 
he  paused,  silent,  with  an  emotion  which  for 
some  moments  also  overpowered  the  Court 
and   the   hushed  and   sympathetic  audience. 

The  emotion  and  the  sympathy  are  intel- 
ligible. No  man  loves  his  Alma  Mater  less 
because  of  her  straightened  circumstances.  The 
colonial  colleges  were  suited  to  the  time  and 
to  its  spirit  and  requirements,  and  their  influ- 
ence upon  our  national  development  has  been 
profound  and  enduring.  But  the  requirements 
of  a  later  time  are  different.  Vassar  College 
a  century  ago  would  have  been  impossible. 
But  if  now  at  the  end  of  a  quarter  of  a 
century  from  the  opening  of  its  doors,  the 
Founder,  as  he  naturally  liked  to  be  called, 
should  visibly  return,  and  sitting  here  should 
contemplate  his  work    and   closely   survey    the 


53 

record  of  this  college,  would  he  regret  his 
high  resolve  and  wish  that  he  had  given 
it  another  form  ?  His  deliberate  decision 
founded  this  institution  which  was  at  once 
the  test  of  the  accuracy  with  which  he  appre- 
hended the  drift  of  the  sentiment  of  his 
time,  and  one  of  its  strongest  confirmations. 
Was  he  wrong  in  believing  that  the  time  had 
come  for  opening  to  women  the  opportunity 
of  the  highest  education  ?  Vassar  asks.  Smith 
and  Wellesley  and  Bryn  Mawr,  Holyoke  and 
Barnard  College,  and  all  the  opening  college 
doors  and  opening  minds  of  trustees  and 
faculties,  the  professional  schools  for  women, 
and  fellowships  and  endowments,  and  van- 
ishing sophistries  and  prejudices,  and  the  ex- 
tending empire  of  common  sense,  all  answer. 
Even .  the  good  old  conservative  stock  of  our 
Columbia  College,  the  scholastic  home  of 
Hamilton  and  Jay,  of  Gouverneur  Morris  and 
DeWitt  Clinton,  brilliantly  blossoms  into  de- 
grees for  women,  and  as  the  other  older  col- 
legiate   nurseries    of    our     education    feel    the 


54 

gentle  feminine  pressure  which  holds  their 
hesitating  gates  ajar,  the  chorus  of  manly 
voices  within  begins  to  murmer,  **  If  women 
are  not  afraid  of  us,  why  should  we  be  afraid 
of  women  ? 

Elsewhere  in  the  world  the  spectacle  is  the 
same.  In  the  shadow  of  venerable  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  in  England,  Girton  and  Newnham 
Colleges  share  the  equal  facilities  of  the  univer- 
sities, and  both  the  great  universities  have  ex- 
tended themselves  by  establishing  throughout 
the  kingdom  examinations  to  which  multitudes 
of  studious  girls  resort,  and  as  the  water  in  the 
remotest  coves  and  bays  upon  the  sea  shore  is 
lifted  by  the  rising  tide,  so  by  these  examinations 
and  by  those  of  the  civil  service,  the  standard  of 
all  English  schools  is  raised.  In  Germany,  as 
Miss  Emma  Atkinson  Almy  tells  us  in  a  recent 
paper,  women  ask  entrance  for  scientific  study 
into  the  universities  of  Prussia,  Wurtemberg 
and  Bavaria.  The  government  hesitates,  but 
sends  an  envoy  to  inquire  into  the  methods  and 
workings  of  the   English  colleges   for    women. 


55 

while  the  Victoria  Lyceum  at  Berlin  has  estab- 
lished a  course  and  methods  of  study  which 
would  naturally  develop  into  a  university  ending 
in  a  state  examination  and  diploma.  In  France 
the  higher  schools  for  women  are  constantly 
higher  still,  and  at  the  Educational  Congress  in 
Paris  during  the  Exposition  of  last  year  women 
were  as  valued  counsellors  as  in  our  late  Na- 
tional Conference  of  Charities  at  Baltimore, 
or  upon  State  Boards  and  School  Commit- 
tees. The  University  of  Paris  opens  its  doors 
to  women  in  certain  studies,  and  the  London 
University  does  not  hesitate.  The  universities 
of  Australia  are  open  to  women  upon  equal 
terms  with  men.  Canada  in  many  of  her 
chief  schools  gives  equal  advantages,  and  to 
Switzerland,  home  of  the  mountain  nymph, 
sweet  Liberty,  Miss  Almy  says  the  aspiring 
young  women  of  Germany  resort  to  secure 
the  education  which  as  yet  their  fatherland 
denies,  while  the  Spanish  and  Italian  Univer- 
sities do  not  disdain  to  train  women  in  special 
studies,  and   Northern  Europe  provides  schools 


56 

for  women  of  constantly  higher  grades,  and 
obeys  the  wise  and  kindly  spirit  of  the  age. 
Surveying  the  spectacle,  Vassar  asks  tranquilly, 
''Was  not  the  time  ripe  for  me?"  and  on 
both  sides  of  the  ocean  and  in  all  civilized 
lands,  the  air  is  astir  with  the  music  of  the 
response — 

"And  Jura  answers  from  her  misty  shroud 
Back  to  the  joyous  Alps  that  call  to  her  aloud." 

But  that  this  day  and  occasion  consecrated 
to  congratulation  upon  the  opening  of  the 
college  for  women  should  not  want  their  dis- 
tinctive triumph,  we  hear  that  within  the 
week  at  English  Cambridge  amid  tumults  of 
enthusiastic  acclamation  Philippa  Fawcett  the 
daughter  of  Henry  Fawcett,  the  late  British 
Post  Master  General  and  Millicent  Garrett 
Fawcett,  has  won  the  highest  University  honor 
in  mathematics,  receiving  four  hundred  marks 
more   than   the    Senior   Wrangler. 

All  this  and  these  may  seem  to  offer  some 
satisfactory  answer  to  our  question  of  the 
Founder    returned    to    contemplate     his    great 


57 

hope  and  noble  purpose.  But  there  is  yet  a 
final  question.  Conceding  that  his  act  was 
justified  by  the  conviction  and  the  desire  of 
his  time — still,  were  they  not  mistaken,  was 
not  the  foreboding  of  doubt  a  forecast  of 
truth,  and  the  warning  of  ancient  tradition  a 
voice  which  should  have  been  heeded?  Mat- 
thew Vassar  was  an  emancipator.  To  those 
who,  comparatively  speaking,  had  sat  in  dark- 
ness he  gave  light.  But  are  not  those  now 
justified  who  winced  at  the  shining  of  the 
light?  That  is  the  question.  Has  this  larger 
liberty  of  education,  this  freedom  of  choice, 
this  devoted  and  successful  study,  this  winning 
of  the  scholastic  palm  and  proud  decoration 
of  the  degree,  has  all  this,  either  in  the  per- 
sons of  the  students  themselves,  or  in  the 
general  effect  upon  their  sex  and  upon  the 
estimate  of  it,  justified  in  any  point  the  sor- 
rowful anticipations  which  seemed  to  regard 
the  opening  gates  of  the  highest  education  for 
women  as  the  flood  gates  of  a  torrent  of 
evils   which   should   sweep   away   the   loveliness 


58 

and  grace  and  essential  charm  of  womanhood? 
Since  Vassar  opened  its  door  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago,  has  there  been  a  marked  tendency 
among  American  women  to  abandon  domestic 
life,  and  to  attempt  occupations  for  which  they 
are  not  fitted  ?  Or  to  state  it  to  you  ad^femi- 
nam,  is  it  true  that  upon  the  gates  of  this 
college  must  be  written  a  doom  as  mournful 
as  that  which  the  Dantean  words  decree  ? 
Whoever  enters  here,  must  she  leave  behind 
the  fairest  hope  for  woman  or  for  man  ?  Is 
it  then  true  that  her  essential  and  enduring 
charm  is  so  cruelly  perplexed  that  to  be  an 
angel  she  must  be  less  than  woman  ?  Is  that 
the  curse  of  Paradise,  the  endless  price  of  the 
fatal   apple? 

Truth  and  experience  laugh  the  question  to 
scorn  and  scatter  the  cloud  of  foolish  rhetoric 
about  the  sphere  and  duty  and  capacity  and 
divine  intention  of  woman  as  if  upon  that 
particular  subject  men  were  in  the  counsels  of 
the  Almighty  and  women  were  carefully  ex- 
cluded.     There    is   no   surer    sign    of    a   more 


59 

liberal  civilization  and  a  wiser  world  than  the 
perception  that  the  bounds  of  legitimate  wom- 
anly interest  and  activity  are  not  to  be  set 
by  men  as  heretofore  to  mark  their  own  con- 
venience and  pleasure.  The  tradition  of  the 
lovely  incapacity  of  woman  reflects  either  the 
sensitive  apprehension  or  the  ignoble  abase- 
ment of  man.  The  progressive  amelioration  of 
the  laws  that  have  always  restricted  her  equal- 
ity of  right,  the  quick  exposure  and  censure 
of  statutes  which  will  outrage  the  instinct  of 
justice  and  fair  play,  the  enlarging  range  of 
her  industrial  occupations,  and,  like  towering 
ice-bergs  melting  in  a  warmer  air,  the  vanish- 
ing in  more  generous  thought  of  prejudices 
and  follies  of  opinion  that  once  seemed  in- 
superable, these  are  those  signs  in  the  heavens 
that  were  held  to  be  unmistakable  and  irre- 
versible. 

More  visible,  and  perhaps  in  some  sense 
more  persuasive  and  conclusive  than  these,  is 
the  verdict  of  literature,  which  unconsciously 
records   the   highest   and   final   judgment  of  an 


6o 

age.  The  women  of  to-day,  as  reflected  in 
the  genius  of  the  philosophical  historian  and 
artist  of  current  society  whom  we  call  nov- 
elist, is  a  very  different  figure  from  the  wo- 
man of  the  eighteenth  century  novel.  Indeed 
that  novel  was  not  written  for  her.  She 
was  not  expected  to  read  it,  and  if  we  fancy 
Cowper  and  Mrs.  Unwin  reading  Tom  Jones 
and  Amelia,  we  only  see  that  Mrs.  Unwin 
was  very  unlike  the  educated  matron  of  to- 
day, while  in  Goldsmith's  Vicar,  the  purest 
idyl  of  them  all,  we  still  hear  the  tone  of 
the  time,  the  thin  refrain  of  the  baby  house 
in  the  nursery,  "Your  best,  your  sweetest 
empire  is  to  please."  It  is  a  fresher  air,  a 
sweeter  music  that  breathes  through  the  Eng- 
lish novel  of  to-day,  and  it  is  in  the  literature 
of  the  English  tongue  as  in  the  feeling  of 
the  English  speaking  race  that  we  must  look 
for  the  true  contemporaneous  position  of 
woman. 

These   are    all   the   happy   harbingers    of   the 
tranquil    and    conclusive    adjustment    of    what 


6i 

Margaret  Fuller  nearly  fifty  years  ago  called 
the  great  lawsuit  of  man  against  men,  woman 
against  women.  It  is  a  case  called  long  since 
in  the  highest  court  of  justice  and  appealed 
from  age  to  age.  But  observe  how  curiously 
the  plain  good  sense  of  Matthew  Vassar  in 
1862  responds  to  the  words  of  the  most 
learned  and  accomplished  woman  of  her  time 
in  America  twenty  years  before.  The  demand 
of  woman,  she  said,  with  proud  and  subtle 
scorn,  is  not  poetic  incense  ;  every  woman  can 
receive  that  from  her  lover.  It  is  not  life-long 
sway,  every  woman  by  becoming  a  coquette, 
a  shrew  or  a  good  cook,  can  secure  that.  It 
is  not  money,  nor  notoriety,  nor  badges  of 
authority.  These  may  be  sometimes  sought 
by  women  but  they  are  not  the  demand  of 
woman.  Her  demand  is  ''  for  that  which  is 
the  birth-right  of  every  being  capable  to  re- 
ceive it  :  the  freedom,  the  religious,  the  in- 
telligent freedom  of  the  Universe,  to  use  its 
means,  to  learn  its  secret  as  far  as  nature  has 
enabled    her,    with    God   alone    for    her    guide 


62 

and  her  judge."  In  these  words  Margaret 
Fuller  said  nothing  which  Matthew  Vassar  did 
not  say.  But  they  were  mutually  unknown. 
Probably  he  had  never  heard  her  name  and 
she  was  dead  long  before  his  name  was 
known.  But  when  the  word  and  act  of  such 
a  man  unconsciously  confirm  the  thought  of 
such  a  woman,  it  is  because  the  common 
sense  of  man  apprehends  the  deepest  and  most 
essential  feeling  of  woman.  Her  feeling  is  not 
that  of  a  goddess  nor  of  an  houri,  whatever 
their  feelings  may  be,  but  that  of  a  human  be- 
ing. In  a  few  simple  words  the  whole  woman 
question  was  solved  by  the  clear-minded  man 
and   the   thoughtful   woman. 

It  was  before  she  had  written  the  paper 
while  she  was  yet  a  young  woman,  that,  as 
a  boy  in  Providence,  where  she  had  come  to 
be  a  teacher  in  a  classical  school,  supporting 
herself  and  her  brothers  whom  she  educated, 
I  first  saw  Margaret  Fuller.  She  was  already 
the  friend  of  scholars  and  famous  men  and 
noble  women,    and    her    wit   and    wisdom   and 


63 

extraordinary  accomplishment  easily  dominated 
the  brilliant  society  of  the  city.  She  was  a 
woman  of  delightful  humor  and  gayety  of 
manner,  and  as  it  was  said  of  Burns  that  the 
charm  of  his  conversation  called  travellers  at 
the  inn  from  their  beds  at  midnight  to  listen,  I 
have  heard  Margaret  Fuller  keep  a  company 
of  young  persons  on  a  journey  constantly 
enthralled  by  her  racy  wit  and  humorous  in- 
telligence. A  scholar,  a  critic,  a  thinker,  a 
teacher,  a  queen  of  conversation,  above  all  a 
person  of  delicate  insight  and  sympathy,  the 
wisest  of  friends,  of  the  utmost  feminine  re- 
finement of  feeling,  and  of  dauntless  spiritual 
courage,  she  seems  to  me  still  the  figure  of 
Woman  in  the  nineteenth  century,  which  was 
the   title   of   her   best   known   paper. 

Daughters  of  Vassar,  such  is  the  woman, 
I  doubt  not,  whom  Matthew  Vassar  vaguely 
foresaw  when  his  generous  heart  inspired  him 
to  his  noble  task.  It  is  the  woman  that  as 
a  lofty  ideal  presides  over  the  studious  hours 
and    quiet   meditations   of    these    halls.       It   is 


64 

the  woman  of  the  nineteenth  century  whom 
the  other  centuries  foretold.  The  old  times, 
indeed,  were  good,  but  the  new  times  are 
better.  We  have  left  woman  as  a  slave  with 
Homer  and  Pericles.  We  have  left  her  as 
a  foolish  goddess  with  Chivalry  and  Don 
Quixote.  We  have  left  her  as  a  toy  with 
Chesterfield  and  the  club  ;  and  in  the  enlight- 
ened American  daughter,  wife,  and  mother,  in 
the  free  American  home,  we  find  the  fairest 
flower  and  the  highest  promise  of  American 
civilization. 


The  Future  of  the  Woman's  College. 

AN       ADDRESS       DELIVERED       ON       COMMENCEMENT 
DAY       BY     PRESIDENT    JAMES     M.     TAYLOR. 


It  is  almost  impossible  for  those  who  have 
grown  up  within  a  generation  to  understand 
the  varied  hopes  and  fears  which  greeted  the 
announcement  of  the  opening  of  Vassar  Col- 
lege. After  admitting  fully  the  earnestness 
and  the  value  of  the  efforts  to  give  a  col- 
legiate education  to  women  before  that  time, 
it  must  be  confessed  that  they  were  accom- 
panied by  discouragements,  by  lack  of  appre- 
ciation, and  by  a  general  failure  to  advance 
their  standards,  due  to  popular  indifference 
and  unbelief.  The  foundation  of  Vassar,  with 
its  endowments  and  broad  equipment,  warrant- 
ing the  hope  that  it  might  realize  the  ideals 
which  many  a  man  and  woman  had  beheld 
in  vision,  attracted  the  attention  of  the  edu- 
cated world,  and  drew  forth,  at  once,  a  re- 
sponse   from     friends    and    foes    of    the    new 


movement.  The  chance  of  success  gave  it 
the  color  of  novelty ;  forces  which  had  been 
gathering  slowly  united  now ;  ideas  began  to 
transform  themselves  into  fact ;  there  seemed 
to   be   a   new   thing   under   the   sun. 

For  a  quarter  of  a  century  Vassar  and  its 
successors  have  done  battle  against  miscon- 
ception, misconstruction,  unbelief,  and  sheer 
ignorance.  The  woman's  college  has  met,  in 
turn,  the  physical,  mental,  social  and  moral 
arguments  against  woman's  education.  To  the 
assurance  that  it  would  result  in  physical  wreck, 
it  has  pointed  to  statistics,  to  facts,  to  young 
women  in  better  health  than  the  average  of 
their  class  outside  the  colleges.  To  the  as- 
sertion that  woman  cannot  be  educated  to 
the  level  of  young  men,  it  has  answered  with 
its  honestly  enforced  curricula  of  studies,  and 
with  its  graduates.  To  the  fear  that  social 
life  would  be  robbed  of  its  pleasantness,  and 
domestic  life  of  its  attractions,  it  has  replied 
with  its  cultivated,  refined  women,  and  with 
its   large    percentage   of    marriages   and    happy 


^7 

homes.  To  the  danger  of  moral  and  religious 
defection,  it  answers  with  scorn  to  the  be- 
liever in  any  education,  and  with  emphatic 
denial   to   the   merely   fearful   and   timid. 

It  has  not  finished  its  apologetic  age.  Per- 
haps that  is  true  of  all  college  education  in 
the  midst  of  an  age  marked  by  the  greed 
of  material  comfort  and  success.  But  at  least 
to-day  we  may  put  objectors  behind  us,  and 
let  the  dead  past  bury  its  dead.  If,  anon, 
we  must  turn  again  to  meet  some  belated 
reasoner,  if  we  must  still  do  pioneer  work  in 
many  a  section  of  our  land,  yet  to-day  our 
faces  are  toward  the  future,  and  strong  in  our 
faith,  and  glad  in  a  proud  present,  we  for- 
get the  things  that  are  behind,  and  press 
onward. 

What  of  the  future  of  the  Woman's  Col- 
lege, and   of   the    education  it  shall   represent? 

Although  the  college  moulds  and  forms 
the  opinion  of  its  generation,  it  is  not  less 
true  that  it  also  reflects  its  spirit  and  tenden- 
cies.    Public  opinion   has   been  rapidly  shifting 


68 

for  twenty-five  years  gone,  and  great  changes 
have  taken  place  in  the  popular  regard  for 
whole  realms  of  study  once  deemed  the  essen- 
tials  of  education.  These  changes  have  made 
themselves  felt  in  every  progressive  college  of 
our  land.  Practical  studies,  Brod-studien,  so- 
called,  have  been  forced  into  greater  promi- 
nence, the  worth  of  neglected  departments  of 
knowledge  has  been  strongly  asserted,  and  the 
demand  for  more  room  for  them  in  the  curric- 
ulum of  the  college  has  been  made  with  an 
irresistible  emphasis.  It  could  not  be  that  the 
effort  to  adjust  the  college  to  this  new  de- 
mand would  be  accomplished  without  friction 
and  much  disorder.  There  was  a  distinctive 
American  College  when  Vassar  was  established ; 
to-day  that  college  may  exist,  but  every  pro- 
gressive institution  has  moved  away  from  the 
old  foundations,  and,  as  yet,  no  general  agree- 
ment has  been  reached  as  to  the  best  form  for 
the  college  of  the  coming  century.  It  is  not 
too  strong  an  expression  to  use  of  our  educa- 
tional   system   to   call   it   chaotic.      What    shall 


69 

be  the    outcome  ?    what    the    general  form    of 
the    cosmos   that   is   sure   to    be,    ere    long? 

Certain  lines  of  cleavage  already  appear  to 
be  fairly  distinct.  The  elective  system  of 
study  has  secured  a  hold  on  the  future,  al- 
though its  precise  limitations  are  far  from 
settled.  But  as  adjusting  itself  to  individual 
needs  and  idiosyncrasies,  as  allowing  a  latitude 
in  the  curriculum  otherwise  impossible,  as  in- 
citing to  greater  interest  and  larger  independ- 
ence in  the  student,  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion as  to  its  permanence.  The  most  ardent 
admirer  of  the  old  system  must  admit  the 
poverty  of  the  curriculum  under  which  those 
of  us  who  entered  college  twenty-five  years 
ago,  or  more,  were  educated,  and  the  com- 
parative uselessness  of  a  large  amount  of 
study  through  which  we  were  forced,  at  an 
age  when  we  were  capable  of  doing  serious 
and  independent  work  in  lines  better  suited 
to  our  tastes  and  powers.  There  is  a  mean, 
assuredly,  between  the  abolition  of  all  restraint 
on    the   young   student    and    the    theory    that 


70 

we  ought  to  be  obliged  to  pursue  the  very 
things  which  are  distasteful  to  us,  a  theory 
which  has  in  it  a  certain  very  thin  vein  of 
truth,  but  which  has  no  more  general  appli- 
cation to  the  mind's  life  than  it  has  to  the 
physical    desires   and   tendencies. 

The  elective  system  has  become  the  doom 
of  the  old  college,  and  suggests  the  lines  on 
which  the  new  will  form.  The  American  col- 
lege of  the  coming  generation  will  be  a  well- 
defined  union  of  the  college  and  the  univer- 
sity, and  this  will  be  made  possible  by  the 
progress  of  the  secondary  schools.  They  have 
made  remarkable  advance  in  the  past  twenty 
years,  and  are  so  improving  their  methods, 
and  are  accomplishing  so  much  more  than 
formerly  that  we  have  every  reason  to  hope 
that  the  coming  generation  will  be  readier 
for  college  work  at  an  age  earlier  than  is 
now  customary.  This  seems  to  be  demanded 
by  the  conditions  of  our  society  and  by  the 
nterests  of  the  young.  It  is  undesirable  that 
our    preparatory    work    shall    be    so    extended 


71 
as  to  postpone  the  earlier,  and  compulsory, 
work  of  our  first  college  years  to  a  time  so 
late  as  practically  to  exclude  the  most  of 
our  youth  from  the  broader  training  of  the 
later  course,  or  else  to  send  them  forth  from 
our  professional  schools,  or  into  business,  or 
even  into  social  careers,  at  an  age  too  ad- 
vanced to  give  them  a  fair  chance  in  the 
competition  of  life,  even  if  it  does  not  also 
diminish  greatly  their  adaptability  to  the 
new  conditions  in  which  they  find  themselves. 
Better  teaching  and  better  methods  have  al- 
ready done  much  to  meet  this  demand.  The 
vast  improvement  in  the  mode  of  classical 
training  in  our  schools,  the  addition  of  in- 
struction in  elementary  science,  the  courses 
in  English,  superior  to  those  in  most  of  our 
colleges  twenty  years  ago,  are  signs  of  the 
better  era.  Before  long  we  shall  also  learn 
that  time  can  be  saved  in  the  earlier  educa- 
tion of  boys  and  girls.  The  absurdly  exag- 
gerated prominence  given  to  arithmetic,  for 
example,    will   be  corrected,  with  a   consequent 


72 

saving  of  much  valuable  time.  Still  better 
methods  of  teaching  English  and  History  will 
save  more,  and  with  the  diffusion  of  the  ad- 
vanced methods  of  classical  teaching  now  in 
use  in  our  best  schools,  there  is  every  reason 
why  the  average  age  of  entrance  to  college 
should  be  reduced  by  at  least  an  entire  year, 
unless,  indeed,  the  colleges  shall  insist,  mis- 
takenly, upon  an  advance,  pari  passu,  of  their 
requirements,  in  the  face  of  what  seems  to  be 
a   reasonable   popular   demand. 

But  it  will  never  be  possible  to  develop 
the  general  high  school,  or  the  correspond- 
ing private  school,  in  its  necessary  relations  to 
the  public,  to  a  point  where  it  can  take  the 
place  of  the  earlier  college  years.  Much  less 
will  it  be  possible  to  furnish  in  any  school 
that  atmosphere  or  influence  which  constitutes 
so  important  an  element  in  the  value  of  a 
college  training.  The  college  alone  can  ac- 
complish the  desired  result,  and  the  American 
college  will  do  it  more  successfully,  because 
of  the  influences  of  the  strictly  university   por- 


73 

tion  of  its  curriculum  on  the  prescribed  work, 
and  because  of  the  presence  among  the 
younger  students  of  those  pursuing  the  broader 
and  more  independent  work  of  the  upper 
classes. 

There  is  some  question  as  to  the  time  in 
the  course  when  the  methods  of  university 
study  will  supplant  those  appropriate  to  the 
college.  The  probabilities  point  now  to  the  be- 
ginning of  our  present  Junior  year, — or  even 
to  the  middle  of  the  Sophomore.  At  least  it 
seems  assured  that  the  type  of  college  toward 
which  we  are  moving  will  combine  with  about 
two  years  of  prescribed  work  an  entirely  elec- 
tive course  of  two  years  more, — that  all  pre- 
scribed study,  and  all  work  in  large  classes, 
will  fall  below  the  period  now  marked  by  the 
beginning  of  the  Junior  year, — and  that  beyond 
that  time  the  student  will  be  left  absolutely 
free  in  his  choice  among  a  large  number  of 
electives,  in  some  of  which  he  will  do  inde- 
pendent work  with  the  minimum  of  the  con- 
straint   essential    in  the   preparatory  years.      A 


74 

broader  basis  of  scholarship,  higher  ideals  of 
student  life,  and  larger  facilities  in  our  col- 
leges, will  make  possible  what  now  would  be, 
in  most  of  our  institutions,  an  encouragement 
of  superficiality  and  ignorance. 

It  is  not  forgotten  that  there  are  colleges 
which  already  closely  approximate  this  general 
ideal,  but  no  one  familiar  with  our  educa- 
tional literature  will  think  that  there  is  any- 
thing like  a  settled  plan  in  the  movement.  It 
has  been  largely  a  hap-hazard  advance, — one  in- 
stitution following  another,  and  all  influenced 
most  largely  by  the  example  of  Harvard. 
But  the  signs  of  the  times  indicate  that  the 
future  college  will  be  a  definite  union  of 
the  two  systems  now  united  in  an  indefinite 
and  chaotic  way.  Now  we  are  trying,  too 
frequently,  to  do  university  work  on  the 
basis  of  the  crude  preparation  of  the  student 
fresh  from  the  school.  Then  we  shall  have 
a  secure  foundation,  a  thorough  training, — bet- 
ter at  eighteen  years  of  age  than  it  was  at 
twenty   a   quarter   of    a   century   ago. 


75 

Nor,  again,  has  it  been  forgotten  that  Har- 
vard College,  which  has  been  the  chief  influence, 
thus  far,  in  the  movement  of  the  new  education, 
has  recently  suggested  a  new  line  of  possible 
development  in  the  shortening  of  the  college 
course.  It  is  perhaps  too  soon  to  speak  with 
definiteness  on  a  yet  unsettled  point,  but  if  the 
movement  shall  succeed  at  Cambridge  it  does 
not  seem  possible  that  it  can  be  followed  by 
any  influential  number  of  American  colleges. 
It  may  hasten  the  day  when  Harvard  shall 
throw  off"  all  that  is  distinctively  characteris- 
tic of  a  college,  and  make  itself  a  univer- 
sity, in  every  sense,  but  it  is  impossible — at 
a  time  when  the  general  cry  is  for  a  higher 
standard  of  American  scholarship, — it  is  im- 
possible that  the  leaders  of  our  American  col- 
leges shall  consent  to  a  step  which  would 
imply,  if  it  became  general  among  them,  the 
lowering  of  requirements  for  the  Baccalaureate 
degree,  and  the  reduction  of  the  college  to- 
ward the  grade  of  the  preparatory  school. 
And  even  if  the  alternative  were  possible,  and 


76 

the  Freshman  work  were  to  be  demanded 
from  the  schools,  it  still  would  remain  true, 
as  has  just  been  said,  that  the  failure  of  the 
school  to  give  the  college  influence  would 
be  a  distinct  loss  to  education.  But  the 
public  would  not  tolerate  such  an  increased 
curriculum  in  the  school,  and  the  colleges 
generally  cannot  consent  to  a  diminution  of 
their  work.  The  Harvard  plan  is  not  yet  all 
seen,  but  it  cannot  be  a  plan  for  the  Ameri- 
can college. 

There  will  be  exceptions  to  the  type  de- 
scribed. Some  colleges  will  confine  them- 
selves entirely  to  university  methods  of  in- 
vestigation and  instruction,  but  of  necessity 
they  will  be  few.  For  many  a  year  there  will 
not  be  demand  enough  to  warrant  the  effort 
to  maintain  more  than  a  very  few  universi- 
ties. The  number  of  students  in  America  who 
can  give  the  time  to  the  more  advanced  work 
is  small  now,  and  will  not  be  large,  probably 
for  years  to  come,  and  if  the  American  col- 
lege  generally   is   allured    by    the    example    of 


77 

these  exceptional  institutions  the  result  will 
be  disastrous  to  a  sound  education  in  col- 
lege and  university  alike.  The  most  opti- 
mistic observer  knows  that  among  the  uni- 
versity students  at  these  various  centers  are 
many  whose  training  does  not  warrant  them 
a   place    in    a   true  university. 

The  mass  of  our  best  colleges  will  do  the 
double  work  of  college  and  university,  and 
will  thus  meet  the  general  demands  of  Ameri- 
can scholarship.  The  strong  foreign  influence 
which  we  have  been  feeling  will  decrease. 
Even  if  the  suspicion  does  not  arise  that  the 
university  system  of  Germany  in  much  of 
its  detail  is  not  an  ideal  system  of  education, 
the  conviction  will  grow  that  it  is  not  fitted 
to  the  conditions  of  our  American  life ;  that 
its  best  features  may  be  appropriated  and  en- 
grafted on  our  present  system  without  the 
absurdly  illogical  effort  to  convey  the  Ger- 
man university  to  a  land  which  has  not  the 
German  gymnasium.  Scholars  from  the  Ger- 
man   university    frequently    declare    that    they 


78 

attended  the  lectures  but  little  and  devoted 
themselves  to  the  seminar.  Our  coming  uni- 
versity, it  is  to  be  hoped,  will  make  more 
use  of  this  most  potent  engine  of  advanced 
education,  in  which  the  free  intercourse  of 
teacher  and  student  may  be  ideal  in  its  ad- 
vantages, and  less  of  the  method  of  lectur- 
ing which  many  seem  to  think  the  chief  fea- 
ture of  a  university,  but  which,  as  a  method, 
is  of  least  profit  to  the  student.  And  yet 
the  introduction  of  this  method  of  instruction 
even  for  immature  students  seems  thus  far  to 
have  been  one  of  the  chief  results  of  the 
work  of  over-zealous  advocates  of  imitation 
of  foreign  methods.  We  must  better  the 
American  school,  we  must  advance  the  Ameri- 
can college,  and  we  must  have  the  Ameri- 
can university ;  but  while  we  learn  from 
others  we  need  not  be  imitators,  and  in  our 
eagerness  for  a  high  standard  of  education 
we  should  not  forget  that  we  are  educating, 
not   an    abstract   person,    but   a    boy   and    girl 


79 

who  are  products  and  part  of  the  peculiar 
life   of   America. 

What  relation  has  all  this  to  the  future  of 
the  Woman's  College  ?  It  is  the  indication 
of   what   that   future   shall  be. 

The  question  as  to  whether  women  shall 
have  the  same  kind  of  education  as  men  is 
still  regarded  by  some  as  an  open  one.  No 
one,  however,  has  yet  given  good  evidence 
that  the  broad  requirements  essential  for  the 
mental  training  of  a  boy  are  less  essential 
for  the  groundwork  of  the  mental  life  of  wo- 
manhood. The  high  school  and  academy 
discover  no  such  differences  as  to  demand 
different  training,  and  the  college,  in  the  view 
here  presented,  will  develop  those  lines  of 
work  to  an  extent  warranting  the  belief  that 
the  student  may  be  left  to  independent  choice. 
The  elective  system  will  thus  meet  any  fan- 
cied demands  for  variety  in  woman's  train- 
ing, but  on  the  foundations  solidly  laid,  and 
not,  as  of  yore,  on  a  groundwork  of  superfi- 
ciality and   unestablished   theory. 


8o 

Indeed,  one  product  of  the  coming  genera- 
tion of  woman's  education  will  doubtless  be 
the  conviction  among  educators,  already 
largely  prevailing,  that  in  education  we  have 
one  problem,  not  two,  a  problem  concerning 
the  welfare  of  a  personality,  and  on  its  men- 
tal side  involving  no  discussion  of  differences 
broad  enough,  or  definite  enough,  to  warrant 
a  consideration  of  different  methods  or  cur- 
ricula. The  crude  hypotheses  of  the  past  still 
survive,  but  they  are  rapidly  ceasing  to  be 
working  hypotheses,  and  the  products  of  our 
women's  colleges  will  soon  give  them  their 
death-blow. 

What  shall  be  the  extent  of  the  curricu- 
lum of  the  future  college  ?  Its  sole  limita- 
tions shall  be  those  compelled  by  the  time 
of  the  course  and  by  the  maturity  of  the 
student. 

The  fact  that  we  deal  with  comparatively 
immature  minds  needs  to  be  urged  upon  the 
attention  of  many  of  our  modern  dreamers. 
The     danger   of    the    young    specialist   is    too 


8i 

often  seen  in  practice  to  need  much  emphasis 
here.  A  well-known  teacher  in  a  leading 
university  has  recently  remarked  upon  the 
spectacle  presented  by  his  own  graduates, 
specialists,  introducing  into  high  schools  the 
methods  of  the  university, — a  sight  familiar 
•enough  to  those  who  know  the  schools,  and 
suggestive  of  a  certain  danger  in  immature 
specializing  of  work  not  enough  considered, 
the  danger  of  divorcing  the  interest  of  the 
young  specialist  from  a  general  education. 
For,  after  all  has  been  said,  the  mere  spe- 
cialist is  in  no  sense  a  well  educated  man. 
We  may  be  thankful  that  there  are  men  wil- 
ling to  spend  a  life  on  the  dative  case,  but 
Heaven  forefend  us  from  the  conception  of 
education  which  is  based  on  such  examples, 
or  finds  its  ideals  in  such  narrow  specialism. 
The  curriculum  of  the  American  college 
will  continue  to  aim  at  a  general  education, 
and  at  a  moderate  amount  of  specialism  on 
the  basis  of  such  a  broad  training.  It  will 
train    the     average  scholar,     and     its   graduate 


82 

courses  and  the  general  universities  will  open 
the  way  to  the  fullest  development  of  the 
specializing   tendencies  of   the   few. 

It  has  already  been  intimated  that  the  cur- 
riculum of  the  earlier  college  years  must  fol- 
low the  lines  of  the  subjects  everywhere  rec- 
ognized as  essential  to  liberal  training, — lan- 
guage and  literature  and  history,  science  and 
philosophy.  That  is  not  affirming  that  these 
must  be  doled  out  after  the  methods  for- 
merly current.  That  all  of  these  will  be  re- 
quired seems  axiomatic,  but  there  is  room 
within  these  requirements  for  a  larger  free- 
dom  than    has   been    customary. 

Observation  and  experience  may  have  de- 
monstrated that  a  general  education  demands 
some  scientific  training,  but  it  is  not  shown 
thereby  that  every  boy  or  girl  shall  study 
Botany.  Linguistic  training  is  essential,  but 
not  training  in  two  particular  languages.  And 
to  study  history  does  not  necessarily  mean  the 
study  of  Greece  and  Rome  only.  Prescrip- 
tion, that  is,  may  grow  in  very  definite  lines  and 


83 

not  be  the  same  for  all.  But  whether  by  an 
old-fashioned  prescribed  system,  or  by  a  modi- 
fied group  system  suited  to  the  capacity  and 
needs  of  young  students,  the  college  must 
hold  the  student  to  a  definite  education  in 
these  old  lines  that  represent  the  mental  and 
moral  needs  of  human  nature,  or  it  will  fail 
to  give  a  broad  and  well  balanced  training, 
or  to  open  to  the  mind  the  great  vistas  of 
knowledge, — and  surely  these  are  among  the 
most    precious   results   of   education. 

Nothing  save  time  and  want  of  money  need 
limit  the  elective  system  based  on  this  train- 
ing and  filling  the  two  remaining  years. 
New  subjects  of  investigation  will  appear ; 
there  will  be  room  for  all.  One  who  recalls 
the  subjects  that  have  enriched  our  curricula 
within  twenty-five  years,  must  have  larger 
hope  for  the  coming  quarter  of  a  century. 
How  many  colleges  of  that  time  offered  the 
study  of  History,  even  for  a  single  year? 
Probably  not  half  a  dozen  presented  the 
subject    of    Quaternions.       English     Literature 


84 

was  scarcely  known  among  them.  Biology- 
was  unheard  of,  and  indeed  has  not  yet  con- 
quered its  place  in  most.  When  one  reflects, 
on  the  wealth  of  opportunity  now  afforded  at 
our  leading  colleges,  the  various  courses  in 
English,  the  special  departments  within  every 
special  science,  the  philological  work  offered 
in  connection  with  both  ancient  and  modern 
languages,  the  broad  extension  of  the  courses 
in  history,  the  altogether  new  phases  of  psy- 
chological problems,  the  awakening  interest  in 
Biblical  study,  the  attractive  courses  in  music 
and  art,  one  sees  that  all  the  cycle  of  knowledge 
will  be  open  to  the  students  of  the  future,, 
and  that  their  limits,  even  within  the  four 
years  of  a  college  course,  will  be  only  those 
of  their  own  capacity.  Young  people  of 
twenty  will  never  be  able  to  do  the  work 
of  those  of  forty,  whatever  their  improve- 
ment and  opportunities,  but  they  will  do 
much  better  work  at  twenty  than  they  did 
who  passed  out  of  college  twenty  years  ago. 
Not    only   will    they    be    broader   scholars,    and 


85 

illustrate  the  results  of  a  better  system  of 
mental  training,  but  they  will  be  sustained 
and  invigorated  by  a  rational  training  of  the 
physical  powers.  The  curriculum  will  come 
♦nearer  to  the  old  Greek  ideals  than  did  that 
of  our  fathers,  but  we  shall  surpass  that, 
for  in  our  modern  Christian  civilization  the 
college  will  recognize  the  spiritual  nature  of 
man  in  a  sense  unknown  to  the  ancient 
world,  and  will  adapt  itself  to  its  require- 
ments. A  healthful  body,  a  vigorous,  well- 
trained  mind,  a  spiritual  nature  balanced  and 
strong,  a  whole  manhood,  a  symmetrical 
womanhood,  will  be  the  aim  of  the  higher 
education    of   the    coming     age. 

But  in  this  progress,  what  of  the  Woman's 
College?  Can  it  maintain  a  like  intellectual 
grade  with   the   colleges   for   men  ? 

Observe  that  this  is  not  primarily  a  ques- 
tion which  regards  the  quality  of  students. 
In  that  respect  it  has  answered  itself,  in 
schools,  in  colleges,  at  home  and  abroad ; 
woman     has     demonstrated     her     capacity    to 


86 

maintain  her  place  as  a  student  beside  her 
more  favored  brother.  The  question  con- 
cerns the  ability  of  a  Woman's  College  to 
maintain  a  Faculty  of  intellectual  rank  equal 
to  that  of  the  college  for  men.  Is  the, 
question  a  real  one  ?  Let  it  be  freely  ad- 
mitted that  the  problem  for  woman  is  com- 
paratively new,  and  that  the  ideal  of  the 
average  woman  student  as  to  the  grade  of 
scholarship  needed  in  a  college  may  not,  as 
yet,  be  sufficiently  high.  But  let  us  deal 
also  with  facts  on  the  other  side.  The 
number  of  excellent  scholars  is  small,  and 
the  number  of  great  scholars  who  are  also 
great  teachers  is  very  small.  There  is  an 
abundance  of  good  scholarship,  however, 
among  men,  and  although  there  is  much 
less  among  women,  the  advance  is  rapid,  and 
it  should  be  remembered  that  the  commer- 
cial worth  of  it  is  greatly  less  than  in  the 
case  of  men.  Very,  very  few  places  bid  for 
the  scholars  among  women,  but  they  are 
increasing, — both   the   scholars   and    the  places. 


87 

It  has  taken  time  to  learn  that  a  college 
training  is  not  the  precise  equivalent  of 
broad  scholarship,  that  a  special  and  extensive 
study,  not  in  the  one  line  merely,  but  in 
cognate  lines  of  research,  is  essential  to  pro- 
ficiency, and  to  professional  dignity  and  worth. 
It  will  not  be  long,  for  example,  before  a 
general  study  of  Literature,  in  college,  will 
be  universally  felt  to  be  insufficient  for  col- 
lege instruction  in  English.  And  yet,  even 
here,  be  it  remembered,  the  Woman's  College 
has  no  reason  to  be  humble  before  the 
colleges   for   men. 

But  now,  given  the  scholarship,  who  shall 
say  that  the  training  will  be  inferior  to  that 
in  other  colleges, — that  the  refined,  accurate, 
discerning  mind  of  woman  shall  not  rival  in 
teaching  power  the  best  of  her  colleagues 
among  •  men  ?  And  why  shall  she  be  less  in 
that  mightiest  and  most  persistent  influence 
that  the  true  teacher  exerts, — the  influence 
of  character, — the  awakening,  inspiring  force 
of    mind    to    kindle,     stimulate,     and    recreate 


88 

the  ideals  which  govern  the  destinies  of  his 
students  ?  What  possible  quality  of  the  true 
teacher  is  wanting  in  the  scholarly,  inspiring, 
and  inspired  woman  ?  The  world  has  been 
slow  to  regard  woman's  education  seriously, 
but  the  thoughtful  man  knows  that  the  quali- 
ties of  woman's  mind  have  made  her  pre- 
eminently a  teacher,  and  that  with  the  broader 
opportunities  of  our  day,  with  scholarship 
equal  to  the  best,  there  can  be  no  question 
of  the  maintenance  in  women's  colleges  of 
standards  as  high,  as  exacting,  and  as  thor- 
oughly maintained,  as  those  in  our  older  in- 
stitutions for  men.  If  the  argument  thus  far 
concerns  women  only,  it  is  because  the  fear 
of  the  fearful  is  directed  to  that  point.  But 
the  chairs  in  women's  colleges  are  open  to 
men  as  well  as  to  women.  The  supply  is 
abundant.  What  shall  forbid  the  woman's 
college  from  commanding  the  best  talent 
among  men,  as  well  as  among  women  ?  It 
is  chiefly  a  question  of  endowments, — and  en- 
dowments  will  come.     The   day   will   come,    as- 


89 

suredly,  when  the  wealthy  women  of  America 
will  awake  as  two  or  three  of  them,  and 
more  men,  have  awakened,  to  the  claim  upon 
them  of  this  great  work  of  the  education  of 
their  sex.  They  will  come  to  see  how  largely 
the  hope  of  the  future  of  America  lies  here, 
and  with  that  awakening  will  come  every 
possibility  to  the  woman's  college  possessed 
by  those  for  men.  Indeed,  be  it  said,  that 
to-day,  even  with  present  resources,  their 
facilities  for  work  are  beyond  those  of  the 
average   college   for  young  men. 

It  is  alleged,  however,  that  it  will  be  im- 
possible to  keep  the  best  talent  in  these  col- 
leges,— that  they  are  isolated,  and  the  oppor- 
tunities open  to  the  teacher  are  thus  few. 
The  objection  is  somewhat  amusing  to  one 
who  knows  the  situations  of  the  major  num- 
ber of  our  strong  American  colleges,  and 
who  knows  the  easy  access  to  considerable 
cities,  to  say  nothing  of  New  York,  Bos- 
ton, and  Philadelphia,  enjoyed  by  the  larger 
colleges  for  women.     A  certain  isolation  comes 


90 

indeed  to  every  busy  worker,  even  in  a  large 
city.  But  this  ojection  will  be  even  less  true 
than  now,  as  these  college  communities  grow 
and  make  their  own  distinctive  society,  while 
at  easy  distances  the  great  libraries,  art  gal- 
leries, and  scientific  collections  of  our  largest 
cities  furnish  every  desired  opportunity  for 
special  work. 

Doubtless  the  best  faculty  can  always  be 
secured  and  kept,  where  it  can  be  paid,  and 
where  it  has  opportunity  of  usefulness, — and 
where  can  there  be  greater,  to  one  who  looks 
deeply,    than   here  ? 

We  are  thus  led  to  ask  one  more  ques- 
tion as  to  the  future  of  the  Woman's  Col- 
lege,— what   of   its   social   conditions  ? 

The  primary  question  here  is  precisely  that 
which  is  agitated  by  the  colleges  for  men, — 
the  necessity  of  the  dormitory,  or  the  leaving 
of  the  student  to  provide  for  himself.  One 
woman's  college  began  on  the  latter  plan, 
and  found  it  unfeasible.  It  must  be  ac- 
cepted  as   true    for    young    women,    at    least, 


91 

that  when  away  from  their  homes  they  must 
have  a  home.  The  demands  of  society  for 
some  kind  of  chaperonage  are  just  and  nec- 
essary. No  right  feeling  parent  can  send  his 
daughter  into  such  social  conditions  as  may 
seem   possible   for   the   son. 

It  may  be  urged,  also,  that  the  true  col- 
lege spirit  cannot  be  gained  where  the  students 
are  scattered.  That  spirit  is  no  inconsider- 
able part  of  the  education  of  the  young, 
and  it  certainly  depends  on  some  central  gath- 
ering place  for  social  relations.  The  dormi- 
tory would,  therefore,  seem  a  desirable  and 
needful  part  of  the  social  life  of  the  woman's 
college   of  the  future. 

Shall  it  be  the  large  building  or  the  "cot- 
tage "  ?  Both.  There  are  great  advantages  to 
be  claimed  for  both.  A  real  cottage  sys- 
tem, a  cottage  accommodating  a  small  family, 
is  impossible  because  of  the  expense  involved, 
and  the  real  issue  is  between  a  large  house 
and  a  great  building.  Because  both  will  meet 
certain    demands,    both    will    continue   to   form 


92 

part  of  the  future  college.  No  method  is 
ideal,  but  the  "  caravansary "  plan,  to  use  the 
opprobrious  term  which  has  begged  and  fal- 
sified the  whole  question,  has  been  found  full 
of  good  for  the  average  student.  With  a 
room  to  every  student,  the  large  building 
bears  well  the  tests  of  comfort,  quiet,  and 
health.  It  renders  the  gathering  of  the  body  of 
students  easy,  and  access  to  libraries,  lectures, 
concerts,  chapel,  comfortable.  These  advantages, 
combined  with  the  saving  of  expense,  will  pro- 
bably make  the  large  building  a  common 
feature  of  the  college,  while  the  popular 
demand  for  smaller  houses  will  render  them 
also  a  part  of  the  equipment  of  these  insti- 
tutions. 

But  these  will  not  complete  the  social  fa- 
cilities of  the  woman's  college.  The  distinct- 
ive college  community,  the  homes  of  men 
and  women  connected  with  the  institution, 
will  soon  begin  to  cluster  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  college  with  the  inestimable 
advantages   of  a  refined    society,    embraced   in 


93 

homes     distinct     from    the     college     building, 
open    to   the    students,    and    adding   a  normal 
element   to    their    lives, — and   affording   to  in- 
structors  a   variety   quite   impossible  where  all 
are     under     the     roofs     of    college     buildings. 
Too    much    stress    cannot    be    laid    upon  this 
phase   of   our  development,  sure  to    be  accom- 
plished  in   the   immediate    future.     The   social 
tone   of   a  woman's  college  must  possess   a  re- 
finement not  so  absolutely  required  in  a  man's. 
Society     itself,    in     the    best   meaning    of   the 
word,   depends    far   more    on     the   culture   and 
influence  of  gracious   womanhood  than  on  any 
power  of  men.     More  care  is  therefore  essential 
in  providing  the  environment  of  cultivation  dur- 
ing college  years,  and  this  can  be  normally  se- 
cured, in  large   part,  by  the  presence  of  a  dis- 
tinctively college  community  beyond  the  college 
walls.      The   woman's   college   will    forfeit    the 
good  will  of  society,  and  justly,  when  it  forgets 
that  the  education  of  womanhood  means  more 
than  the  training  of  the  mind  to  useful  thought; 
and  indirectly,  never  directly,  surely  in  these  col- 


94 

lege  years,  the  woman's  college  must  always 
cultivate  with  care  the  graces  and  proprieties  of 
social  life.  It  will  fail  of  its  high  purpose  if 
it  ever  makes  its  aim  the  education  of  the 
teacher,  the  physician,  the  business  woman. 
Its  high  aim  is  to  educate  womanhood, — wo- 
manhood trained  in  body,  mind,  and  spirit, — 
womanhood  for  the  school,  the  sick-room, 
the  social  circle,  the  church,  the  home, — the 
woman,  who,  whatever  else  she  may  be,  scho- 
lar, teacher,  journalist,  business-manager,  wife, 
mother, — is  first  of  all,  and  last  of  all,  the  re- 
fined  true  woman. 

What  shall  be  the  attitude  of  Vassar  Col- 
lege  in   view   of    the    progressive   movement  ? 

Let  its  past  answer.  Despite  the  insuf- 
ficient understanding  at  times  of  the  great 
problem,  justly,  termed  an  experiment,  we 
may  yet  claim  that  a  steady  progress  has 
characterized  the  educational  ideals  and  labors 
of  the  college,  that  with  an  income  never 
sufficient  to  justify  rapid  advance,  and  gener- 
ally   insufficient    to    meet     running     expenses, 


95 

every  department  of  the  college  stands  on  a 
much  higher  level  than  was  possible  ten 
years  ago.  Its  work  has  been  not  merely 
honest  and  thorough,  it  has  been  progressive. 
It  has  justified  the  noble  purpose  of  its 
founder,  and  its  history  makes  his  splendid 
gift   one    of   the   glories   of  philanthropy. 

If  it  has  accomplished  such  results  in  its 
pioneer  years,  when  it  has  met  misconcep- 
tions, and  even  base  slanders,  if  it  has 
struggled  on  bravely,  doing  its  work  soundly 
and  carefully,  and  proving  its  soundness  by 
its  fruits, — then  what  may  we  not  hope  for 
in  the  better  day  which  is  dawning,  and  from 
the  fuller  appreciation  of  the  weighty  import- 
ance of  our  labors  ?  If,  with  scanty  funds 
and  danger  of  debt  ever  before  us,  we  have 
established  a  college  on  firm  foundations, 
what  shall  we  not  hope  from  the  coming 
years,  and  the  large  endowments  they  will 
bring?  New  friends  will  arise  to  supplement 
the  efforts  of  the  old.  New  buildings,  new 
laboratories,  new  libraries,  will  grow  about  us. 


96 

Professorships  will  multiply.  Social  life  will 
become  fuller  and  richer.  And  with  all  this 
increase  will  come  in  growing  numbers  the 
graduate  student  to  pursue  here  her  special 
studies,  or  with  this  as  a  basis  and  a  home, 
to  follow  out  her  chosen  lines  among  the 
libraries  and  museums  and  scientific  collec- 
tions  of   the   neighboring   metropolis. 

What  shall  be  our  limit?  The  ambition 
of  the  Honorable  Board,  which  has  so  wisely 
guided  the  destinies  of  the  college  ?  The 
past  is  the  answer.  The  aims  and  ideals  of 
the  Faculty  ?  They  have  not  yet  been  approx- 
imately realized.  In  the  desires  and  loyalty 
of  the  Alumnae  ?  They  cannot  be  surpassed. 
All  are  our  pledge  to  the  future  that  Vas- 
sar  College,  in  hearty  accord  with  its  sister 
institutions,  shall  labor  for  the  broadening 
and  lifting  of  the  life  of  womankind,  and 
thereby  of  the  entire  race,  and  so  shall  it 
more  than  realize  the  high  thought  of  its 
founder,    Matthew    Vassar. 


OVERDUE.  = 


LD  21-100m-7,'33 


; 


LB  1>/S7 
•  7 

/  ^yo 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


